Captain Morgan
by Khartoum
Summary: Star Trek 50 years before Kirk & Co.
1. Excelling

Note: Star Trek belongs to Paramount, and so on. This is not a challenge to their authority, or to any of their copyrights. This is merely a story that I wrote to enjoy, and for others to enjoy for free. All intellectual copyrights belong to me.  
This story takes place roughly fifty ears before Captain Kirk and friends have their jolly romp through the galaxy.  
  
Prologue:  
"Can anyone hear me! Somebody help me!"  
  
The two ships danced through space, one obviously pursuing the other. From afar small bursts of light could be seen, as ions from weapons dissipated some of their energy into the vastness of space. From afar, the scene was calm, almost tranquil. Getting closer though, you could see that the pursuing ship was far larger than the smaller prey in front of it. The small prey ship seemed to be trying to dodge to avoid the blasts coming at it, but it was too slow and clumsy.  
  
"This is Lieutenant Wilhard, on the shuttle Arcturius. Cease firing, cease firing!"  
  
It now seemed as though the larger ship was toying with the smaller, deliberately hanging back for a second to pretend it was leaving, then suddenly moving ahead to block the small shuttle's path. The predator ship looked like a demented bird, with outstretched wings, and a long neck that seemed to be reaching for its prey. The shuttle looked like a frightened creature, with a blocky body, and a pair of warp engines attached to its sides. Several more shots flew from the larger ship, and all lights on the smaller suddenly went out.  
  
"Oh no, all the power's out!"  
  
The larger ship now seemed to be maneuvering to pick up the smaller one. It slowly moved over to the smaller shuttle, and a web of lines was fired at the smaller shuttle, to help it into the docking bay.  
  
"This is Lieutenant Wilhard of the United Federation of Planets. Can anyone hear me? I'm being captured by some unknown ship. Can anyone hear me?"  
  
The smaller ship was gently drawn into the docking bay of the larger ship, and as the door closed a final plea for help was made"  
  
"This is Lieutenant Wilhard. Can anyone help me!"  
  
End prologue  
  
Captain Morgan: Excelling  
  
Captain Morgan strode onto the bridge of the Excellon. He was proud of his new command, and he intended it to be one of the finest examples in the fleet. Although she was a new ship, with most of the crew on board straight from the Utopia Planetia Shipyards, he was confident he could get them into a well-organized team.  
  
His ship was one of the new Vectron-class starships, with four internal launch bays for nuclear missiles, a total of seven laser turrets, two main-line lasers, and a main-line gauss cannon. The front two-thirds of the ship was a roughly triangular shape, with the tip of the triangle cut off. There was an engineering section in the rear of the ship, and the warp nacelles were mounted flush with the engineering section, to reduce structural strain.  
  
The whole ship was two hundred meters long; with light-weight crystal armor all over the front two-thirds to a depth of half a meter, and the engineering section was covered with the crystal armor to a depth of thirty centimeters. The crystal armor was designed to refract and reflect incoming laser energy, and exploding in a cloud of crystal if the laser energy was too high to reflect or refract. The expanding debris cloud would serve to further dissipate the laser energy being directed at the armor.  
  
The laser turrets were distributed all over the ship, with one turret on top and another below the main hull, two turrets along each side of the main hull, and a single turret at the rear of the engineering section, to prevent any blind spots from being exploited. The two main-line lasers though, were mounted facing forwards, and were limited to a maximum of five degrees of aiming by force fields manipulating an energy lens. They were mounted adjacent to the gauss cannon, which was also mounted along the centerline of the ship. The center of the ship's mass was inside the center of the barrel, and was designed to reduce any possible missing by the acceleration of the projectile causing the ship to turn.  
  
The gauss cannon was designed to attack either stationary targets, or ground bases. With a small machining shop nearby, theoretically any material could be turned into a gauss round, but using pre-machined rounds was far safer, as they had been balanced to prevent any possible wobbling while being accelerated. If the round wobbled while being accelerated inside the gauss system, the metal slug could miss the target, or tear through the hull next to the gauss cannon, ripping its way through the interior of the ship as the round expended its kinetic energy. When a one hundred kilo slug was accelerated to two thirds the speed of light, it had a massive amount of kinetic energy, and anything that was hit by such a round would know it.  
  
The main reactor was an anti-matter power plant that was fed from a bank of fifty anti-matter storage pods below the engineering section. Each of those anti-matter pods were capable of supplying power to the ship for one week, and were contained in separate pods so refueling and testing could be conducted on one pod while the one next to it was providing power to the ship. All the pods were kept attached to the ship by electromagnets, and were being pushed away from the main hull by gas cylinders. The power for the anti-matter containment traveled through the same loop as the electromagnets, giving a simple safety system.  
  
If power was lost to the antimatter containment, the electromagnet would also lose power, and the gas cylinders would begin to exert their pressure against the pod. If power was restored to the containment in time, the electromagnets would reassert their force, returning the pod to safe storage. If power was not restored in time, the gas pressure would push the containment pod away from the ship, where any possible containment failure would not occur next to the ship, or within a safe distance. With a pair of secondary containment systems on each pod, each with their own power system, the pod had a safe time of half an hour before containment would completely fail and the pod would be destroyed by the antimatter within it reacting with the pod's walls.  
  
The main reactor was also designed along similar lines, with a minimum of non-reacted material within the chamber at all times. If there was a problem with the main reactor, the anti-matter flow was simply cut off, and the reaction within the chamber would burn itself out within one tenth of a second. The auxiliary fusion reactors could then be started, and a complete system overhaul could be performed to get the main reactor safe again for normal operations. If that wasn't possible, the ship would go to power saving mode, with a minimum of lighting and comforts, and the ship would go to the nearest starbase at warp one. Although the trip would take a while, it was better than being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a dead reactor.  
  
All the consoles of the ship were designed with a minimum of power requirements. Electrical power was generated from the waste heat of the reactor, and was used to run most systems on the ship. This left main power available for powering the weapons, shields, and engines.  
  
The shields were designed to defend against known threats, which were potential pirate ships operating with Federation technology. Since the main anti-shipping weapons in use by the Federation were the nuclear missiles and lasers, electromagnetic shields had been developed to protect against nuclear EMP effects. There had been no success yet in defending against the neutral photons and other particles emitted by lasers and their derivatives, but the crystal armor was designed for that purpose.  
  
Captain Morgan turned to his XO, Commander Verrin, and asked her, "Is this ship and crew ready to go?"  
  
"Ready and waiting Captain." Commander Susan Verrin knew the reputation of Captain Morgan. He had graduated second in his class at Starfleet Academy, and had done his hardest to make up for the one class that had cost him the first place claim. The Captain was among the greatest tactical and strategic geniuses in the Federation, if not the best.  
  
The problem though, was that he had not done well in Philosophy. That one class had cost him the rank of first in his class, and was the thorn in his paw, so to speak. Also, he was one of the few officers in Starfleet who insisted on maintaining a fleet of warships. He had repeated his claim that a powerful military was crucial to the Federation's security often enough that a few had listened and more had noticed. The few that had listened had designed a warship based on current technology and a few of his ideas, and the others had seen an opportunity. An opportunity to be rid of him, along with a few others who had graduated from Starfleet Academy. They upper echelon in Starfleet had decided to give him a warship, and send him off to one of the far reaches of the Federation, and leave him there to be rid of him.  
  
The crew assigned to this ship was also not exactly known for their "conformity" to Starfleet regulations. Except for the Captain and herself, nobody on the ship had graduated in the upper two-thirds of their class. The crew members were smart, nobody that graduated from Starfleet was not, but they had all been discipline problems of one sort or another. She had barely graduated above the halfway point, and it had been by the skin of her teeth that she had managed to stay in Starfleet Academy at all.  
  
"In that case, let's get this ship underway. Helm, engage thrusters, bring us out."  
  
"Aye aye Captain."  
  
The thrusters were deployed from behind their armor panels, and the menacing ship slowly swung out from the docking port of the station orbiting the planet. A series of careful adjustments, and the warship was clear of all orbital traffic that would be affected by the impulse engines.  
  
"Captain, we are clear of local traffic, and the station confirms that we are go for impulse power."  
  
"Very well then, ahead one quarter impulse. Let's take it easy until we are outside the moons' orbits, then go to full impulse to clear the gravity well."  
  
"Yes Captain. One quarter impulse, bearing three hundred by zero."  
  
The trip to the edge of the gravity well lasted only a few minutes, and Commander Verrin took the opportunity to look over her Captain's shoulder at the portable console in his lap. She could see a list of the crew's previous records in damage control and other related drills, and a separate list of Starfleet standards. She saw that practically all of the drill results were far below Starfleet standards, and winced. She then saw the third column, and saw that it was a series of dates. Those dates were all within the next month, and she realized that the Captain was already setting a series of drills to improve the crew's reaction times.  
  
"Planning a busy month Captain?"  
  
"This is a warship, and I don't want to come out of a possible fight in second place."  
  
"Yes, Captain." Part of her had shaken when she had heard him talk. She had heard other captains talk in her career, but they had been so calm, so laid-back. Captain Morgan seemed to be decisive in his speech. He seemed to radiate confidence, both in his ship and his crew. Confidence that had drained from the crew as they had gotten to know each other; and realized that in effect, Starfleet had assembled a crew that would not be missed. Confidence that in spite of their being a new crew, on a new ship, being sent off to the edge of Federation space, that their ship's name would go down in the record books.  
  
"Captain, we are beyond the orbits. With your permission, we will go to full impulse."  
  
"Granted. Let's get into space, and see what's out there."  
  
"Yes sir." The ship seemed to leap forward, and the inertial compensators kept the acceleration from turning the crew into goo on the rear bulkheads. The ship punched through the inner system, heading outwards from the star, as though eager to be free of the confining effect of its gravity.  
  
"XO, put me through to the ship."  
  
"Comm, get a channel set up for the entire crew to hear."  
  
"Done Captain."  
  
"Crew, this is your captain speaking. We were put together because we are considered not acceptable by Starfleet. They are sending us off to the edge of Federation space to be rid of us. They believe that we are not worth the effort of keeping around the main areas of the Federation. They also believe that there is nothing to fear from anything on the edge of the Federation, and that this warship and weaponry is a waste of resources.  
  
"I don't believe that. I believe that each and every one of you has the potential to be a shining example for the rest of the Federation to follow. I believe that we can turn what Starfleet considers a bad crew into one of the shining examples of what Starfleet believes in.  
  
"I also believe that there are beings both within Federation space and beyond that are not friendly. I believe that there are races that are just as warlike and dangerous to us as we humans were to each other several centuries ago.  
  
"If we do encounter any hostile vessels, I do not want this ship to wind up in second place. Because of that, the next several months will be full of drills to improve your reaction times, and to get all of you used to working as a team.  
  
"It will not be easy, but I know that you will do your best. That is all."  
  
With that, the Captain motioned for the communication officer to cut the intercom, and he looked back at the crew arranged around him. Except for the helmsman, everyone was staring at him. The helmsman was still busy flying the ship, but he could tell that he wanted to turn around as well.  
  
"Commander, here are the assignments for tomorrow's drill. I am going to start this ship off at basic General Quarters drills, and then add a few wrinkles into them."  
  
"A few wrinkles Captain? Like what?"  
  
"If I told you, that would spoil the surprise,? said Captain Morgan, with a hint of a smile on his face.  
  
Commander Verrin saw the slight smile, and decided to turn in early that night, as she figured that it would be a long time before she had a decent night's sleep again. She was right.  
  
*  
  
The next morning, she got together with the department heads, and handed the officers their assignments from the captain. Each officer was to keep track of how long it took for their section to set their assigned area to General Quarters readiness, and to give those reports to the Captain as their section finished. This would allow the captain to see exactly where each section needed help, and to schedule additional drills in the section or sections that were lacking.  
  
The Captain had scheduled the General Quarters drill for that afternoon for fourteen hundred, and the various departments spread the word among their enlisted personnel, so that they would be ready for the drill.  
  
Engineering crews began hiding various components around the ship in various areas, effectively getting the necessary tools to where they would most likely be needed.  
  
But Captain Morgan wasn't idle during this time either. He was walking around the ship, inspecting various compartments with a casual air. He had helped with the design of the ship, and had a good idea of where most of the hiding spaces were on the ship. He began taking notes of what equipment was where, and modifying his exercises accordingly.  
  
*  
  
At fourteen hundred hours, the drill began. "General Quarters, general quarters. All hands man your battle stations."  
  
Everywhere, crew members stopped their current activities, and began heading towards their respective stations, and setting the systems in their areas to general quarters. As the minutes counted by, Captain Morgan had the numbers read out loud, along with each section as it reported battle readiness.  
  
After all sections had reported battle readiness, Captain Morgan began performing the first set of drills, intending to simulate battle damage. He began with a set of simulated overloads on the forward shield generators, to simulate damage to the shields, and then began performing a series of breaches in the hull on an outer deck, corresponding to various hits on the ship itself.  
  
But the impacts had also been designed to make the various crewmembers run around a little more than usual, due to several episodes of pre-staging critical parts near one generator, and needing those parts for another generator instead. Also, if a repair crew took too long repairing one section, he would simulate another hit in the area, and the crew currently repairing the section would be treated as casualties, requiring additional personnel and equipment to assist in repairing the original damaged area and getting the injured crew to a medical station.  
  
He would also simulate additional damage in the area, reflecting the fact that if the armor was breached in that area, further damage could be done directly to the ship's interior, increasing the load on the area's damage control teams.  
  
After one hour, Captain stopped the drill, and looked at his numbers. "Crew, this is the Captain speaking. First, I would like to congratulate section three for being the first section to be completely at general quarters after the drill had begun. Second, I appreciate the effort all of you put into the repairs, as I am sure some of you put more into them than others. Finally, I would like to point out, that today's drill was done without any of the environmental effects that would also occur given the damage inflicted. Tomorrow's drill will include the environmental effects. That is all."  
  
After closing down the intercom Captain Morgan turned back to his XO and smiled saying, "I wonder if as much equipment will be pre-staged tomorrow."  
  
With that, Captain Morgan went to his cabin, to begin looking over the records from the day's drill, and modifying his plans for the morrow.  
  
Commander Verrin looked over the bridge crew, and saw that a few of them were looking at each other with grins. Looking at one of the grinning crew, she said, "What damage control section are you in?"  
  
"Section three Sir," said the crew member with a big grin.  
  
She turned back to the main viewer, and began thinking, 'He's getting the crew to compete among themselves for being the best. That's not normal procedure, and I hope he knows what he is doing.'  
  
*  
  
The next day was more of the same, with shield generators being hit, and armor being penetrated. However, this time the computer was also keeping track of which crew members were in the spaces affected by the hits, and would tell the person if they were in a chamber when it was exposed to vacuum, and how badly injured they were.  
  
Also, if a section was hit by fire, the standard lighting would be disengaged, and the emergency lighting engaged, forcing the crew to perform their duties in a different light. Other hits on power nexii would simulate a hit to the gravity generators, and the crews would be forced to repair the areas in zero-g environments. Magnetic boots helped the crew from floating off, for those that thought of it in time, but having tools float off was a constant reminder of their situation.  
  
That day, section six was first in setting their section for general quarters, and the faces that had been grinning the day before were replaced by new ones.  
  
Commander Verrin thought, 'This competition seems to be working. Each section is trying harder to be ready first, in exchange for the captain's favor. Even though there is no real reward being offered, they are trying to succeed. The crew is actually putting forth the effort. I never thought it would work.'  
  
*  
  
The next three days were more drills, and each time a different section was able to finish before the others at getting their areas to general quarters. Each day of the drills, the rate of damage increased, requiring the crews to do their jobs faster than before, so that they would be ready for the next volley. By varying where the impacts occurred, the hull patching crews and repair crews could not pre-stage equipment effectively, resulting in he crews making sure that their gear was in the proper locations when they reported to their section.  
  
At the end of the five days of drills, the Captain again addressed the crew, "Members of the crew. You've done well in the past five days. You've cut in half the amount of time needed to get to General Quarters from what you were at previously. Of the ten sections, Section two had the shortest time in getting to general quarters. You have done a good job. I'm sure that you've also learned what items are needed for various tasks, and are now capable of achieving them in various conditions. Also, I'm sure you've noticed that the tactical and security sections have been performing standard operations the entire time.  
  
"Over the next week, the drills will swap. The tactical and security sections can look forward to various types of combat scenarios, against a variety of potential opponents. The rest of you should take the time to relax, as I am planning a special activity the week after. That is all."  
  
Captain Morgan looked around at the bridge crew, watching as the appropriate duty crew returned to their stations on the bridge. They were looking at each other with some relief in their faces, as though they were relieved at the drills being over.  
  
"Captain Morgan", said Commander Morgan, "the crew could use a break before the next set of drills."  
  
"Commander, all of the drills done this week were at a specific time, with plenty of warning. I doubt that a real vessel would arrange their schedule with us before they attacked.  
  
"But you are correct. I could use a mild break as well. After all, I only have eight potential scenarios designed. I plan on using these next two days to come up with some new ones."  
  
Commander Verrin looked at the captain's back as he left the bridge. 'Only eight? How many does he plan on doing?'  
  
*  
  
The two days seemed to pass quickly for the crew, as some were dreading, and others anticipating what would be coming. The tactical and security sections were going over their manuals, hoping that what the Captain would pull would be in those books, somewhere.  
  
When the day came to begin the drills again, Captain Morgan turned to Commander Verrin, and said, "Commander, you have the bridge. I'll be running the drills, and seeing how the sections perform."  
  
Proceeding to the secondary bridge in the ship, Captain Morgan saw that the first tactical section was there, waiting for his arrival. He also saw the security chief standing there, and paused to talk to him. "Lieutenant Molson, you have the exercises ready?"  
  
"The teams have been set up, and are ready to begin Captain."  
  
"Very well then. Proceed."  
  
Lieutenant Molson proceeded to the wall where an intercom was located, and said, "Sections ten through twenty on decks four through six are now off-limits to non-security crew for the duration of the security drill."  
  
The security exercise had been selected to simulate various conditions, ranging from a single escapee that the security teams would have to recapture, to possible hostage situations, to full boarding attacks by hostile forces. The security teams had been split up into two groups, and one side would play the role of the opposing force (OPFOR). The defenders would try to use their training and knowledge of the ship to contain and/or neutralize the OPFOR.  
  
Seeing that the security drill was well underway, Captain Morgan proceeded to his seat in the battle bridge, and commenced the series of drills for his tactical teams.  
  
Those drills were composed of sensor tests, escorting freighters, covering several planets in a system against possible raiders, to engagements against larger vessels. The weapons in use by the forces were also varied, ranging from ion weapons to disable electronics, thermal weapons designed to heat the hull, various nuclear effects to disorient sensors and targeting, along with a healthy helping of different types of missile weapons.  
  
The sensor tests and escort missions were fairly easy on the crews, as the ones who had lighter jobs would get a copy of the sensor sweeps, and attempt to find out what was possibly out there. When actual combat started though, the sensor crews were on their own, as the weapon crews and shield crews had to keep an eye on their stations to prevent any leaking in the defenses.  
  
When the drills were finally complete, Captain Morgan turned to the tactical crew and said, "Well done. Now I trust that you won't tell the other sections about what you did today. After all, you wouldn't want them to have an easier job of the drills. Secure from tactical drills, and return to normal operations."  
  
Calling up a schematic of the security drills, Captain Morgan began watching how the security teams were doing. He was watching the OPFOR maneuver unusually, when he realized what exactly was wrong. The OPFOR was only maneuvering two-dimensionally. They had three decks to work with, and they weren't using the freedom that offered.  
  
Fortunately, the defenders were maneuvering three-dimensionally, and were surrounding the OPFOR, and simulating massive casualties on them. He wondered if the security forces were deliberately faking the fight, to make it easy on themselves, and called up a list of the security personnel, and which side they were on in the fight.  
  
'That explains it,' he thought. 'Most of the people on the OPFOR side were heavily trained in ground combat, while those on the side of the defending were trained in starship security.' The ground forces were accustomed to only thinking in two dimensions, while the starship security was accustomed to thinking in three. 'Very well then. Tomorrow's drill will be a little different.'  
  
He watched as the security force was able to finish out to the inevitable conclusion. The ground assault unit was surrounded and captured, but one unit had held out the longest. He called up the record of the ensign in charge of that unit, and what he saw made him smile. That ensign had repeatedly attempted to get off Starfleet Academy grounds, and had managed to succeed several times, and security had never been able to figure out how she had done it.  
  
'That ensign has a creative mind. I think it's time she gets a chance to use it.'  
  
*  
  
The next morning, the drills began again. There was a new tactical team ready, and the security forces had been divided up into new groups. The ensign from the day before had been given command of a larger unit, and was using it effectively, as the officer in charge had assigned that ensign the job of making sure that the defenders were distracted by her unit while the real assault team went in. With no other limits on her authority, the ensign managed to cut through the opposition, constantly changing decks to keep the defenders guessing, and managed to get to the objective before the actual assault team did.  
  
The tactical teams had some more fun, as they managed to survive for a few minutes longer than the first during the initial drills, but Captain Morgan had changed the last couple enough to throw them slightly. But they managed to recover in time, and were able to get a fairly good score in.  
  
*  
  
The third day of the drills saw the ensign effectively in charge of the OPFOR, but the defenders had an advantage of two to one in numbers. The ensign still managed to achieve the objective, and the senior security people were discussing with the ensign what the various tricks were that she had used.  
  
The tactical sections were still doing well, and were learning how to coordinate their actions to better deal with an opponent.  
  
*  
  
The fourth day of the drills saw the ensign in charge of the OPFOR, but with the defenders having a three to one advantage in numbers. It took the ensign two minutes longer, but she was still able to succeed in achieving the objective. One slightly amusing part had occurred when the ensign had triggered a release of smoke from a conduit, and had gotten two defending teams to fire at each other for several minutes before the smoke finally cleared and the defenders had realized what was going on. There had been several red faces when they had figured out what had happened, but the ensign struck again, and never gave the defenders a chance to figure out her next move.  
  
The tactical drill involved a sensor detection operation, with a combat scenario right as the sections were changing over. The teams had to learn to work together with new people, further showing them that acting as friends was not enough; they had to act as parts of a machine to get the job done.  
  
*  
  
The fifth day of the drills saw the ensign being placed completely in charge of the defenders, and having a five to one disadvantage. This time, she was defeated, but only by a single massive push that had overwhelmed her defensive line. The ensign had used several environmental effects to aid her, such as turning off the gravity in a corridor, and having the OPFOR flounder about in weightlessness while a couple crew members picked them off one by one.  
  
Other options that the ensign had exploited were simply turning off the lights and ambushing the OPFOR, having containers full of super-glue placed strategically, or hurled like grenades, and detonated with hand lasers. However, even though all the defenders had been defeated, the OPFOR had "lost" roughly ninety percent of their forces. Captain Morgan took note of that, and also of the fact that the security department had half its normal complement of higher-ranking officers.  
  
The tactical teams had enjoyed another changeover attack, and the crew members managed to change over smoothly, with far less confusion than last time. Captain Morgan had the tactical sections perform several such switch-overs, and the crew-members learned how to coordinate themselves so there was a minimum of confusion during the process.  
  
*  
  
When the week was over, Captain Morgan looked over the results of the personnel involved, and how they had managed to recover from any setbacks. He called in Commander Verrin, as he wanted to go over several of the people involved, and he wanted her insight into the men and women under his command.  
  
Commander Verrin arrived, and he told her to come in.  
  
"Commander, I would like to get your opinion of several people on this list. First, what is your opinion of the current damage control leaders?"  
  
"They are well-qualified as damage control-leaders, but lieutenant Birgsby mainly lives and works on port side, and his damage control station is on starboard side. I'd like to move him a little closer so he is in a more familiar area."  
  
"Good. Second, what about our engineering staff? I've noticed one person on this list who seems to do nothing but tinker with the laser systems."  
  
"That one is engineman Bolton. He often tries to tinker with the spare laser systems, or systems that are being used as spare parts. He's been trying to shrink the laser systems to even smaller but just as deadly sizes. He works on it after his assignments are complete, and he's had a few innovations that we're thinking about using."  
  
"Such as?"  
  
"He's working on a better sort of energy lens, allowing the main lasers to be aimed up to ten degrees off-axis. But the lens would require three times the current power draw, so Starfleet command decided not to go with it. I've encouraged him, through the chief engineer, to keep working on it though."  
  
"Good. Might be useful as a second aiming system. Third, there is one person in the security section who seems almost disgusted by the current Starfleet laser. Why?"  
  
"That would be petty officer Davis. She wants to develop a rapid fire weapon for security people to have in case of large numbers of attackers. She's been trying to work on a hand energy weapon that fires rapidly, but is still having trouble. Namely, the energy coils aren't designed for rapid fire, and if used on rapid fire would rapidly overheat."  
  
"Then she'll have to think. Finally, what do you think of Ensign Mallory?"  
  
"She is a capable officer, and a smart person. She gets along with others fairly well and-"  
  
"That's not what I am asking here," interrupted Captain Morgan. "How do you think she would react under pressure? Is she ready to be onboard a starship, several hundred light-years away from Starfleet headquarters, knowing that at any time she could be called upon to die to protect people she may never even meet?"  
  
Commander Verrin reeled in her mind. This was not the normal sort of question a captain would ask, unless the captain had serious doubts about a person's fitness to be out in space.  
  
"She can think on her feet, and is not afraid of a challenge. She is also willing to stand up for someone else, no matter who it is. In her record it says that she assaulted four other classmates at the Academy. I asked her about it, and she told me the whole story. It turns out that she was getting dressed in the fitness center there, and there was another woman taking a shower at the same time. She heard the door open, and saw four men come in, wearing Academy uniforms. She asked them what they were doing in the women's locker room, figuring it was some sort of dare, but one of them told her to stay out of their business. Two of them went into the shower room, and the other two stood outside, to prevent anyone from entering. When she heard the cadet in the showers scream, she knew what was happening.  
  
"She then went to the two men outside the showers and tried to push through them, but they shoved her back. She then attacked the two men. Both of them out massed her, but she was unafraid. She managed to beat both of them up, and went into the shower. When she saw what the two men were doing to the woman, she was infuriated. She admitted to me that she attacked them, and knocked both of them out.  
  
"She then managed to get back to the sickbay, but the doctors were not able to find any physical evidence. Also, since the four men were recommended by captains, and one was the son of a high-ranking Federation official, nothing was ever done against them.  
  
"So no matter what you are thinking about doing to her, I will make sure that she stays an ensign on this ship!"  
  
Captain Morgan had stayed silent the entire time, and his expression had not changed. But at Commander Verrin's final comment, he said, "I'll need your signature on here please," as he pushed over a datapad.  
  
Commander Verrin nearly exploded when she heard him talk so calmly, but then gasped in shock as she read the first line. 'Ensign Mallory is to be-'  
  
"Promoted? What do you mean promoted?"  
  
"I want people on board who believe in doing the right thing, and that the doing is the only reward. We are going to be out here for several months, if not a year, and I don't want people who imagined flashy adventures as their life in Starfleet. Also, she did remarkably well in defending the ship, from people who knew their way around the ship. She was outnumbered five to one, and she still took down four and a half times her number. That is someone I want on this ship, and her skills make her one I want higher in command. The promotion will be done after the drills conclude, along with other promotions for completing appropriate evaluations, and recommendations of their superiors.  
  
"Most importantly though, are any of those four men on board this ship?"  
  
"No Captain. They were kept close to Starfleet headquarters, at the request of their recommending officers."  
  
"I see. If any of those four men are on a ship we meet, I want you to tell me. Also, I read your file, and although your marks are extremely high, you have several discipline notices here. But there is no information about what exactly you did. Would you mind telling me what happened?"  
  
"Um, Captain, I'd rather not talk about that yet. It's more of a personal matter, and I'd like to wait before I tell you that."  
  
"I see. But I will need to know eventually. In the meantime, do you have any other information that I should know about?"  
  
"No Captain."  
  
"Very well then. Arrange the damage control leaders as you see fit. Also, don't forget to sign here," said Captain Morgan, indicating Ensign Mallory's promotion to Lieutenant (jg).  
  
Commander signed the paper, and left the Captain's office, her thoughts in a whirl. 'He is not some idle dreamer,' she thought. 'He wants to get things done, with people that he can rely on. Also, I better tell Ensign Mallory about her upcoming promotion. She is going to be shocked!'  
  
*  
  
The next week, the two sets of drills mixed together. The tactical sections would perform scanner sweeps, and look for unknown vessels. When a simulated ship was detected, the tactical teams would engage it, with Captain Morgan letting Commander Verrin take a few combats, and Captain Morgan a few himself. That way, both of them got a chance to exercise their tactical skills, and the tactical teams learned to trust their judgment.  
  
If damage was scored by a false target, the damage control teams would have to repair the item, and the faster they got the shields restored, and weapons back on-line, the better chances the ship would have of fighting off the enemy vessel.  
  
The final day of drills was a mass attack, with boarding pods being simulated by the enemy, and boarding attacks conducted. Ensign Mallory was heading the defenders, and was able to handle all of the attackers, even though she had been outnumbered by ten to one. Her key ability to win had been the fact that the OPFOR had been coming in from different areas, and were uncoordinated in their attacks.  
  
At the end of that day, Captain Morgan addressed the crew. "Attention all personnel. I am very proud of all of you. You have managed to get this ship's response time to an attack to shorter than what Starfleet deems acceptable for responding to an unprovoked attack. You also held off a force that would have overwhelmed any other Starfleet vessel, and managed to deliver large amounts of casualties at the same time.  
  
"We will be arriving at our destination, Starbase 121 in two weeks. There will be no more drills during that time, because all of you did such a good job. At least, none called by me. There we will put in, get fresh supplies, and get an overall view of what the sector is like. We will be there for four days, so there will be time for shore leave.  
  
"Enjoy your time off, but remember that we are here to protect people, and it is they who we are ultimately protecting." Finished with his speech, Captain Morgan closed the circuit, and settled comfortably in his chair.  
  
The stars were still heading past his ship on the view screen, and Captain Morgan watched them go by, enjoying the view that he cherished so much.  
  
Two weeks later, the Excellon arrived at Starbase 121. The Starbase was actually a supply depot and communications center on the planet's surface, with a medium sized repair center and construction center there as well. It could repair starships, and build small craft, like shuttles and small warp-capable ships, but large replacement work would tax its abilities, and actually building a ship there was all but impossible.  
  
The planet was a class 'M', which meant that it was Earth-like in its conditions. That made maintenance of the starbase easier, as the personnel didn't have to wear bulky environmental gear to fix components, and buildings didn't have to have extensive protective systems. A flat area served as a spaceport for craft that landed there, and walking to and from buildings was very easy.  
  
The town that had grown up around the starbase was a farming and mining town, with its more dangerous areas near the spaceport, as sneaking a ride onto a passing ship was easier than one would expect. Trips on civilian craft were fairly dangerous, and anyone who wanted to sign on was accepted, no questions asked. The starbase security personnel thus had a fairly easy time. If they knew someone in the town was suspected of a crime, they merely put up notices for that person, and within a few weeks, that person would be gone.  
  
When the Excellon arrived, and began sending down its shuttles with crew members, there was a different stir there. Captain Morgan had asked the base commander for a list of general rules of conduct appropriate locally and a list of off-limits areas for the crew. He had also asked for a current situation report (SITREP) of the sector, and the base commander had requested that he come down to discuss it.  
  
When the Captain arrived on-planet, he told Commander Verrin to take care of the parts and supplies that were needed while he met with the base commander. Heading towards the room, Captain Morgan saw several areas that were in need of repair on the base, and sighed mentally. 'They are Starfleet officers, and they can't get their people to repair a simple panel?'  
  
Finally arriving in the room, Captain Morgan saw the base commander lounging back in his chair, with his uniform top lying in a chair, and just wearing the undershirt. 'That explains a lot.' "Commander Wilson, you wanted to see me?"  
  
"Yes Captain. We've been getting lots of complaints about cargo not being delivered to the outlying colonies, but we've been sending the shuttles and ships on schedule. Also, those shuttles and starships have not returned from their missions either so I have been figuring that several colonies are trying to get their own shuttles and ships for their own purposes.  
  
"According to Starfleet regulations, planets require a minimum amount of people living there to be allowed a shuttle. A higher amount of population is necessary for that planet to be allowed a ship. Only a couple of the systems out here have enough population to be allowed a shuttle, yet twenty shuttles and eight ships have gone missing. If those colonies don't return those vessels, supplies to other colonies will suffer as a result.  
  
"Essentially I would like your help to go to those colonies, and search them for the missing shuttles and spaceships. If they return them, fine. If not, do whatever you feel is necessary.  
  
"Here's an updated map of the various colonies out here, and one manned sensor platform. I'll let you set your route, and hope to hear from you in a month. In the meantime, feel free to take advantage of the nearby town. I'm sure that there will be no problems that will involve your people."  
  
"Thank you commander. I'm sure that we will be able to handle this problem easily. Good to see you."  
  
"And you captain. One question, do you have an antimatter production facility out here?"  
  
"Captain, we're not that capable. What we mainly do here for fuel purposes is use shuttles with small drones to mine the hydrogen from the sun and a local gas giant for processing into deuterium to refuel the freighters and shuttles. We might be able to build an anti-matter production facility, but for the safety of this base I'd recommend that it be built in orbit, and any antimatter produced there be stored in long-duration pods, also in orbit. It'd also take six months to build the base, even if we stopped production of shuttles here. And that figure is just to build a small antimatter station. It might keep a ship like yours fueled, but that'd be it."  
  
"Ah well. I was hoping to be able to refuel here as well, in case our mission gets too long. After all, if we left, more ships and shuttles might get stolen. If you don't mind Commander, I'll be heading back to my ship."  
  
"One thing Captain. Since none of the regular flights have managed to make it, would you be willing to carry a few components to the various colonies? As far as anything else is concerned, it will not be a problem Captain. I'll be here anytime you need anything, or my staff will be able to help."  
  
"Normally I'd complain about turning my ship into a freighter, but I will carry a few of the components you request."  
  
"It shouldn't be a problem captain. The total size of all the components for the colonies is two cargo pallets worth. I took all of the components they requested, and organized according to the most important on each list."  
  
"Then it won't be a problem. This problem should be taken care of in a few months, if that long. By your leave Commander?"  
  
"Glad to have you here Captain. If there's anything else you need, feel free to ask."  
  
Captain Morgan left the room, his mind spinning. 'What would the scattered colonies want with the shuttles and cargo ships? If the shuttles weren't returned, they wouldn't get any equipment that they needed beyond that of simply stripping the shuttle. What is going on?'  
  
*  
  
Ensign Baker was overseeing the cargo transfer from a storage warehouse on one side of the base into the shuttle, when she noticed something odd. The civilian crew that was there seemed sort of nervous. Walking over to one of them, she asked about the local shipping runs, curious about different astronomical phenomena.  
  
"Ma'am, I don't know much about astronomical stuff, but what I do know is that several ships around here have disappeared. It doesn't seem like the colonies are doing it, as they are real happy to see our ship pop in. It might be some sort of astronomical phenomenon that's localized to our area. If you can find out what it is and how to avoid it, there are several crews around here who would appreciate it."  
  
Ensign Baker thanked him and walked away. 'A totally new astronomical phenomenon. I could be the first to discover it!'  
  
The rest of the shuttle crew didn't know why she wore a grin the entire ride back to the ship.  
  
  
  
Captain Morgan got back to the ship, where he saw that the shuttle bay was organized confusion, as cargo pallets were transferred, and people moving around in a purpose. He edged around the side, not getting in the way of his crew as they kept loading more goods on board the ship. He saw the two cargo pallets on one side, and walked over towards them. 'I wonder what sort of cargo the colonies have been requesting.' He looked at one of the containers in the pallet, and gasped in shock. 'Water purification system, radiation filters, oxygen generators, hypergrowth seed stock? These are components that are vital a colony's survival and they are not getting through? Something is seriously wrong here.'  
  
He headed back to his quarters, and called the commander's office. "Commander Wilson, I was wondering if you could give me any data on the shuttle and ship flights that have disappeared."  
  
"Not a problem. I can send you a copy of all our shipping records for the past three months if you wish, with flags showing which ones disappeared if you wish. It would include cargo manifests, crew records, location and time of departure, and location and times of destinations for them."  
  
"That'd be great. If we can find a common factor to all of them, this problem should be wrapped up in no time."  
  
"I'll get the file together and sent to you right now Captain. Is there anything else?"  
  
"Not much. How about activities for recreational purposes, such as a friendly competition between our people?"  
  
"Be glad to Captain. I'll have some of my staff put together a list of various activities and games that we can do, and we'll send the list to you. Be fun to get some new people to play against."  
  
"Should be fun Commander. Thank you for the information."  
  
"Glad to help Captain. Starbase 121 out."  
  
*  
  
During the three days that the crew of the Excellon was there, the crews of the Starbase and the warship enjoyed a few games of volleyball, baseball, basketball, and others. A module freighter had stopped in, and was busy transferring some of its cargo to the starbase before moving on to the other colonies on its delivery schedule.  
  
A module freighter was little more than engines, crew quarters, and a great big airlock/docking clamp. The actual freighter itself had been designed around the docking and towing structure at the back. The warp engines were on wings on either side to be outside the width of the modules, and the impulse engines were on wings as well, but one on top and one on the bottom of the ship. The wings were designed to provide fuel and support to the engines and ship, and were not actually lifting surfaces in themselves. Shuttles were used to handle all ship to ground transportation.  
  
The modules were one hundred meters long, and twenty meters wide, with a three meter wide airlock on both ends to allow the freighter crew to check on the cargo during their trip. Due to the modules changing the size of the warp field necessary to propel the ship, traveling with one module allowed a top speed of warp 3, and traveling with two to three modules brought it down to warp two, and traveling with four to six modules reduced the speed to warp one. However, having the sixth module there added a great deal of stress to the warp engines, and caused the fuel requirement to double. Each module also had a small power plant on board to provide extra power to the no board cargo if any was needed.  
  
There were many types of modules in service, ranging from simple cargo modules, to passenger modules, to one module that was little more than a small shipyard. Due to the design of the main crew section of a module freighter, it could be built in sections, and two could be transported inside a module to a destination. This allowed damaged ships to be simply disassembled and stuffed inside a cargo module, to be transported back to a shipyard to be repaired. Some freighters were roving mining stations, with several cargo modules, and a single module that sent drones to planets to mine them of different minerals. As the ore was processed in the second module (a smelting module), the refined ore would be loaded into a cargo module to be picked up by the next freighter shipment.  
  
Some modules were designed with multiple airlocks on the sides, and could be put together to form a space station. Another type was designed to haul antimatter, in pods. The pods were arranged around the outside of the cylindrical pod, and were similar in design to those used on warships. If any power was lost to the anti-matter containment, the pod would be automatically jettisoned, and if the pod exploded, the freighter would not be harmed. A small fusion reactor was kept running on the module to provide power to the containment fields. There was also a little room for cargo within that module as well, allowing a single module like that to completely refuel a ship and partially resupply it as well.  
  
Other people were experimenting with self-expanding hydroponics gardens for pods, designed to allow a ship to park itself close to a star, extend the gardens, and wait for the crops to grow. More experiments were done, such as equipping the outside of the modules with solar panels to allow the ships to have a form of reserve power, but that project was scrapped as only ships close to a star would be able to generate enough electricity to be useful.  
  
Cargo modules were the most plentifully produced by the Federation, as almost any other module could be made by simply retrofitting the cargo module. Passenger modules could be made by installing seats for short range trips, and quarters for long-range trips. Shipyard modules could be made by taking off one end, installing the shipyard in its folded configuration, and reattaching that end with giant hinges that would open up to allow the shipyard to deploy. Command centers could be built by installing the necessary sensors on the outside, and the computers on the inside. Since they all used the same type of docking interface, any module could be carried by any freighter. If an entire string of modules had to be dropped at a starbase, the freighter could simply disconnect the desired modules, and continue on its trip. In short, the module system was among the easiest methods of hauling cargo around the Federation.  
  
As a result, module freighters were easy to recognize by many people who had access to space. As the captain watched, he recognized the signs of how bad the starbase was doing. In normal circumstances, the module would have been simply dropped off, and the starbase's shuttles would have done the job of removing the cargo. Without those shuttles, the freighter itself had to do the job, and the freighter captain must be beside himself, waiting for the transfer to be complete so he could continue the cargo run.  
  
Fortunately, one of the shuttles from the base had a full load of deuterium, and was busy transferring it to the freighter's fuel tanks. Fusion was a good and reliable source of power, and many freighters used it because it did not produce any radioactive by-products, and the basic fuel was easy to obtain, being simple hydrogen. Practically every starbase had a deuterium processing plant, where raw hydrogen was converted into deuterium, making a fuel that was just as safe, yet far more potent in terms of power production. A few grams of tritium were also loaded, in case the freighter had to shut down its fusion plant, and needed to restart it later.  
  
Captain Morgan noticed that his screen was blinking at the bottom, indicating that someone wanted to talk to him. Pressing the button, Captain Morgan activated the comm link.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Captain, the captain of the freighter would like to talk to you."  
  
"All right. Put him through to my screen."  
  
The connection was made, and the two captains were able to communicate.  
  
"Captain Morgan? This is Captain Walstein of the freighter Amemnon. I'd like to discuss a little favor I'd like from you."  
  
"What type of favor is it?"  
  
"Essentially, we are proceeding to the planet Ritzak five next, and given the number of disappearing ships, I was wondering if you would be willing to, well, scout out the route ahead of us to make sure that it is safe. From the way things are going, we'll be leaving in two to three days, and I can delay that long with no trouble. According to the records I've managed to assemble, there have been three disappearances along that route, and I'd like to know that it is safe to travel. Would that be okay with you?"  
  
"I don't see what the problem will be. We'll be heading to that planet first anyway, so you are free to follow us if you wish. Is there anything else?"  
  
"That's it. My entire crew has been worried stiff the entire time and now I can tell them there is nothing to worry about now. Thank you very much for your help Captain."  
  
"Part of the job Captain."  
  
They cut communications links, and Captain Morgan turned to the three-dimensional chart, showing the locations of all the colonies in the area. He set up one route showing from Starbase 121 to the Ritzak system, and began to plot additional routes from there. He compared it with a list of which systems had the most missing ships reports, and he finally had his patrol route selected.  
  
The next couple of days went smoothly, as there were no incidents reported, and the competitive games between his crew and the starbase's crew were fun to go to and watch. His crew didn't have a large amount of space to play in, so the baseball game was lost by his team, but the volleyball and basketball games were a lot more competitive. Still though, everybody had fun, and a few people from the town showed up to watch too.  
  
When it was time to leave, Captain Morgan was on board the ship, watching the final shuttle come aboard. He saw the freighter also collecting its last shuttles, and smiled. Once his shuttles had started coming aboard, the module freighter's captain had managed to get his crew moving fairly quickly, and was getting ready to leave as well.  
  
The same procedure to leave was followed again, and Captain Morgan felt the faint vibrations that signaled the impulse engines coming up to full power. They reached the edge of the system, and the Excellon seemed to stretch as the mighty ship went to warp. Proceeding up to warp three, the Excellon aligned itself to arrive at Ritzak. Since this was a regular travel, the ship was traveling at warp three, instead of the warp five it was capable of.  
  
Captain Morgan knew that there were theoretical studies being done to allow higher warp speeds, but they were still in the future. In the meantime, he would use what he had, and what he had were the best sensors and scanners, and a well-trained and drilled crew to use them.  
  
On the way there, Captain Morgan briefed his senior staff on what had been happening so far in this sector.  
  
"As far as we know, three ships and twenty shuttles have vanished in this area. Starbase 121 believes that the colonies in this area are stockpiling the vessels, and we are to find out who is doing this, where they are being stockpiled, and why. We also have critical equipment that each colony needs, and we are to give them that equipment after they give us the information we need, or we determine that they are not part of the thefts. Are there any questions?"  
  
There were none, and the department heads went to meet with their personnel, to brief them on their mission. The sensor crew was put through several drills, attempting to get as much data as possible from what was handed to them. A single General Quarters drill had been held, and the crew had performed splendidly during it.  
  
A week and a half after leaving, the Excellon arrived at Ritzak five. There had been nothing much to observe on the way there, merely a couple nebulas, and an asteroid. There had also been a subspace distortion that had appeared behind them, but it had not lasted for more than four minutes before dissipating naturally. The scanner crew had looked over the planet, and presented their report to the captain. Ritzak five was a mineral rich planet, with extensive duranium deposits. However, the massive amounts of duranium there resulted in high radiation counts, so a radiation filter was needed to keep the people there from developing radiation sickness.  
  
Even with current radiation treatments, the filter was still necessary to prevent high levels of radiation from building up in the colony. Current radiation treatments were mainly composed of a series of time-released compounds that bonded to duranium particles, and then being excreted normally by the body. Since there was no way for a chemical reaction to affect radiation, the compounds had been designed to bond with duranium atoms, and then be filtered out through the kidneys. To prevent a high amount of radiation from building up in the kidneys, the time-release system was used to slowly release the necessary compounds. The other system associated with this was to drink lots of fluids.  
  
As the ship settled into its orbit, the scanner crews reported higher than usual radiation levels within the colony, and the communication teams received a transmission from the colony also.  
  
"Federation vessel in orbit, please respond. We need medical assistance, please. There are many of us sick from radiation poisoning, and our last radiation filter broke down three months ago. We have been trying to keep people healthy with radiation treatments, but the amount of radiation is still increasing. We need medical help to get some of our most sick out of here. Federation vessel, can you hear us?"  
  
Captain Morgan looked at his scanner crew and asked, "Scan their colony. Find out how much radiation is there, and how long it has been building up. Also, see if there are any signs of shuttlecraft or ships with warp capability down there."  
  
Turning to his communications crew he told them to open a channel to the colony. "Ritzak five colony, this is Captain Morgan of the Excellon. We will assist with the radiation treatments, and we will send a shuttle over now. Also, I would like to speak with your administrator myself, so make sure they're on board also."  
  
"Gladly Captain. We'll gladly be ready for your shuttle. Landing area one will be illuminated for your shuttle to use. I'll be standing by for when you arrive, and the most heavily irradiated will be waiting there as well."  
  
"Very well then. Excellon out."  
  
Pressing a button on his chair, he told the medical staff, "Doc, we've got people below who are suffering from radiation sickness. I need you to get radiation treatments ready for them, and get them to the shuttle bay now."  
  
"We're getting ready now Captain."  
  
Turning back to his scanner crew, the Captain asked for their report.  
  
"Captain, we've scanned the base, and it appears that the radiation has been steadily building up over three months. There appear to be no signs of any warp capable vessels anywhere on the planet. The only craft there that seem even capable of flight are three atmospheric flyers, and one space capable shuttle, but that shuttle has no warp drive that we can detect."  
  
"Very well then. Commander Verrin, please tell the cargo bay personnel to get out the radiation filter for Ritzak five. Bring it and an engineering team down there with the shuttle crew, and install it. In the meantime, try to look around, and see if anyone knows anything about the missing ships and shuttles."  
  
A single shuttle left the Excellon's boat bay, bringing the needed supplies to Ritzak five. In it were most of the medical staff with the radiation treatments, an engineering team with the filter, and Commander Verrin with an inquisitive mind. They arrived at the landing pad, and waited for the airlock to be extended to meet their shuttle. When the airlock was fully extended, the engineering team got out first, and asked the nearest person where the radiation filter should go.  
  
While that was taken care of, the medical team got out next, and began taking onboard the critically poisoned people. Commander Verrin managed to get out by moving with the flow of traffic, and quickly met with the colony administrator.  
  
"Commander, I'm administrator Waldeck. I assume you are here to meet with my staff?"  
  
"That is correct. We had a radiation filter that was also being brought here as well, and our engineering crews should be installing it as we speak. Our sickbay will help treat your people, and all the people should be finished loading in a few minutes. Do you have someone I can use as a guide around here?"  
  
"Certainly. This is lieutenant Meran, of Starfleet security. He is in charge of security here, and has already been briefed to assist you in any way you see fit."  
  
"Thank you Mr. Waldeck. Just edge in behind a returning medic, and you should be able to get on board the shuttle without much trouble."  
  
"Thank you Commander. I'll be on my way now."  
  
Three minutes later the shuttle was full of the sick people, and was heading back to the Excellon in orbit. As the shuttle left the planet, the second shuttle arrived, loaded with more medics and medicines to help the people there.  
  
Captain Morgan met with Mr. Waldeck, and brought him into the private discussion room on board the ship. A medic had given Mr. Waldeck a radiation treatment once he got on board the Excellon, after a Geiger counter had noticed his passage. There were glasses of water set out for both of them on the table, along with a pitcher with water and ice in it.  
  
"Mr. Waldeck, how many radiation filters do you normally carry for a colony of this size?"  
  
"We normally have two. One filter running and one as a replacement. When the one running died, we sent out a request for another one, and simply kept on going. When the second died three months ago, we sent out a mayday to Starbase 121, and I pleaded with him to send us a new one."  
  
"You mean you hadn't received a replacement filter by that time?"  
  
"That's correct. We haven't received anything from Starbase 121 for the past six months. They keep saying they'll send us something, but they never do. The commander there says he is sending us supplies, but so far we haven't received anything."  
  
"That's odd. According to these records," said Captain Morgan as he held out a datapad with a list of all the shipments that had gone to Ritzak five, "you've been sent five radiation filters, eight cartons of radiation vaccines, and several crates of food and other spare parts."  
  
"That's not true! We have been sitting here the entire time, eating food from the hydroponics, even though it is getting full of radiation, because none of that has arrived here. If we had received any of those supplies, we would not have anywhere near the current amount of injured people we currently do."  
  
"Then can you tell me what you do know?"  
  
"All I know is that we send requests for supplies to starbase 121, they tell us they are going to send supplies, and nothing happens. I can give you a complete copy of our communications records if that would prove anything."  
  
"That probably would help. In the meantime, the freighter Amemnon will be arriving in a week, with more supplies that you need. Is there anything else you would like to talk about?"  
  
"Nothing I can think of Captain. With the radiation filter here, we can start to reduce the radiation inside the base, and control any further access as well. If you don't mind, I'd like to catch the next shuttle back to the colony, and see how things are going. With your permission Captain?"  
  
"Go right ahead Mr. Waldeck. We need to be getting to our next colony in the area, and seeing how it is doing also. We'll finish up here and head on out to the next one."  
  
"Okay Captain. I'll send you a message when the Amemnon arrives, so you can know that we're getting back on our feet." With that, Mr. Waldeck slowly began making his way back to the shuttle bay, to get on board shuttle headed back to the planet.  
  
Captain Morgan watched him leave, and wondered what was going on. 'Starbase 121 says they are sending supplies, but Ritzak five says they aren't. Something weird is going on out here.'  
  
*  
  
After six hours of shuttle flights and medical care, the colony was getting back on its feet. The radiation filter was doing an excellent job, and radiation levels were falling steadily. There would still be a few pockets of radiation that would take longer than others to decrease, but on the whole, the filter was removing the radioactive components from the air, water, and hydroponics systems. The whole colony was currently running the ventilators full blast, to try to cycle more air around, to prevent any final pockets of radiation from "hiding". As each new pocket of irradiated air was found, the radiation level would rise, then fall as the filter worked on the air.  
  
After the Excellon left the system, Captain Morgan called in his senior staff. "Did any of you see anything that led you to believe that they had hidden anything there?"  
  
The ship's chief engineer, or Cheng, spoke up first. "Captain, my teams went over the entire area. The radiation was deep in the walls. The rough time estimate for that to have happened is twelve weeks, give or take a week. There is no physical way to do that that I can even conceive of. There were no welds observed, and the walls were entirely one piece, so there is no way to have irradiated several layers at once, and then welded the layers together.  
  
Those were also main structural beams we scanned, so the only way for them to have been falsified is to disassemble the main reactor area in the first place. If they did that, they would all have to live in space suits the entire time. If they falsified that, then they were willing to undergo a lot of strain and hardship."  
  
The ship's doctor spoke up next. "Captain, we're still going over the blood samples taken down there, but all of the samples we have taken so far have showed slight signs of radiation damage. Mostly in the cell walls, but a few samples have also shown signs of genetic damage as well. Again, the chief engineer's time estimate is what I'd say. There was no heavy radiation count detected, so there is no way they could have done all of this at the last minute. If they are faking, then they have been exposing themselves to the radiation for the past three months in order for it to seem real."  
  
The ship's operations officer spoke up next. "Captain, while my people were down there, we looked around the supply center. There was nothing there fresher than six months, and several of my people even took the chance to look around the mines, indicating an interest in the activity. We could find no sign of anything newer here than six months, which is the same figure that Mr. Waldeck gave us as being the last supplies that were received. If they are faking it, then they are doing a very good job."  
  
The ship's tactical commander spoke up. "Captain, I had a couple of my people look around the armory, on an inspection. They are using our current sidearm, but are missing the current update, which was a safety recall. The recall was made due to the beam emitter often shattering when used at anything higher than setting five. The replacement emitter cannot be manufactured locally, and none of their weapons had that upgrade. If they are faking, then they are deliberately weakening themselves to anyone that tries to sabotage the installation.  
  
The other officers gathered there agreed with the department heads' observations, and waited for Commander Verrin to present her findings. "Captain, I talked with several of the senior people here, and looked around while doing so. Everything they told me fit in with the story so far, and there were no gaps or holes that I could find. All the damage so far is genuine, and everything fits. I tried to poke holes in their stories, but there were none I could find."  
  
Captain Morgan paused for a moment, digesting their statements and deciding what to do. "Very well then. I spoke with Mr. Waldeck, and he says that they have been sending requests for replacement parts to Starbase 121 for several months, and the starbase hasn't sent anything. Since we know the starbase has been sending supplies, then that means that the shuttles are simply not reaching here. If we can search out the colony that is holding the shuttles, we can find out what is going on faster, and return all of the supplies to the colonies that need them. We will set a course to our next colony, Sherrizin 12.  
  
"If there is nothing else, you are dismissed."  
  
*  
  
Elsewhere on the ship, Ensign Baker was happy. She had managed to get a copy of the colony's sensor records, and was looking forward to integrating the data with the freighter's sensor data she already had. She watched as the computer began accepting the new data, and building a time-lapse three-dimensional map of the area around the colony. The colony's sensors weren't that powerful, so she was extremely limited in the area and definition she could view.  
  
Within two light-years, there was excellent detail. The system's Oort cloud was visible as a sphere around the system, and a few larger asteroids were visible as well. From two to five light-years out, the data grew spottier. A couple nebulas, and the three neighboring systems were visible, but not much else. From five light-years on out, details were barely visible. She could see other systems, but not much else. She could even get reads on vectors to various items that were not immediately visible on the sensors. Working at it, she managed to get vector lines added to the data, to signify something happening that was not immediately visible on the hologram.  
  
Her data was starting to add up, and she began to add in the ship's sensor data, hoping to see the results when she got back from supper. The results wouldn't take that long, but she was hungry. 


	2. Others

Captain Morgan: Others  
  
Captain Morgan watched the stars fly by the main screen, as they cruised to the next planet. Sherrizin 12 was the fourth planet out from the secondary star in a binary star system. It was the most habitable planet in the system, but that was not saying much. The planet's atmosphere was over forty percent oxygen, and fifty percent nitrogen. The colony lived in a sealed dome, and extracted argon to mix with the atmosphere to allow the colonists to breathe without worrying about sparks.  
  
The source of all the oxygen was the massive plant life present. Virtually every square meter of the planet's surface was covered with a plant that turned sunlight and carbon dioxide into oxygen. The colonists had to go outside every few days to clear off the plants from the exhaust vents, as the plants were all but ravenous in their search for carbon dioxide. A few small oxygen-breathing herbivores had developed, but the charged particle waves that the sun spewed out every few years kept their population down, while the plants simply out-reproduced them, with seedpods hardened against the effects. In fact, a few plants had been using the flares to trigger their seedpods to open, waiting for the rich soil to be ready for them to live in.  
  
As a result, there was no need to worry about the plants choking each other out, as the solar flares and charged particles would kill off all plant life, and the seeds in the ground would be able to use the raw material from the decomposing plants to grow. The decomposition effect was caused by hardy xenobacteria that lived inside the plants, taking a little of the plant mass to sustain them, in effect a type of parasite. While the plant was alive, the plant could grow fast enough that there was no problem with the bacteria, but when the plant died as a result of the flares, the bacteria would rapidly destroy the plant that it lived in. The colonists had not found out yet how the bacteria got inside the plants yet, but they were still looking into it.  
  
There was no need for breathing equipment if you went outside the base, and the colonists there were in the habit of keeping a small, slow-growing plant in their room, to keep it smelling fresh, and providing plenty of oxygen. The plants worked better than any filter the Federation could produce so far, and at a far lower cost. The net result was that their plants were sent all over the Federation, as a cheap method of air filtration. The colonists had had some small success crossbreeding various plants with the local variety, and several variants had been produced. Some had a pleasant odor, others glowed in the dark via bioluminescence, and still others would have sealed bulbs where the flower developed inside, but would only open when carbon dioxide was exhaled on them. However, there was a strict quarantine system working, to prevent anyone from crossbreeding those plants with any of the toxic kinds, or fast growing kinds. One person had been a prankster, and had managed to crossbreed the plants with a native earth plant called the "Rotting corpse flower". The plant lived up to its name, and had forced the evacuation of an entire building when the massive flower opened during a speech.  
  
According to the messages sent so far, the colony was having trouble with its fusion reactor. Without its reactor, the colony would not be able to communicate with the rest of the Federation; and even more importantly, there would be no way for the colony to survive the next solar flare. The colony also served as a center for biological research into plants, and exported various food crops to the Federation. By using small shuttles to extract the necessary biological materials from the local comet bodies and similar sites, the scientists would deposit the materials on the planet in pre-selected areas. The areas pre-selected were those that had hybrids that been bred to produce fruit and other similar crops.  
  
The biological materials would land on those plants, serving the two tasks of clearing a field, and fertilizing the area. The seedpods in the area would use the raw organic material, and grow to titanic proportions. The old Earth records of defining bumper crops, and record sizes were considered barely acceptable amounts here. Each acre on this planet yielded over ten times the amount of crops as an acre on Earth, and that was per planting. Since each field could handle four plantings per year, this one planet was one of the most vital planets of the Federation.  
  
Briefly Captain Morgan wondered why the Federation was shipping hyper growth seed stock to this sector, instead of having Sherrizin 12 export its crop to the local systems. But that was the way the Federation operated; all proceeds are to go to the local Starbase according to what the colony was able to produce, and the Starbase would disperse the items to each colony as to their needs. Anything left over would go up the chain of command for the starbases, until a use was found for it. If a colony needed something that was not produced locally, it would send the request to their starbase, and the request would be passed up the chain until somebody was found that had it, and then that item would be sent down to the colony that needed it. Most colonies kept a hidden supply depot, to use in case the items ordered weren't available for a few months, or years.  
  
But that was idle daydreaming, and Captain Morgan knew that if any independent operators tried substituting themselves in here, they would be used by the Federation for more efficient distribution purposes. While on the way there another general quarters drill was held, to keep the crew in the right frame of mind.  
  
When they arrived at Sherrizin 12, the communication section could get no answer to their hails. Investigating further with their scanners, they were only able to detect low-level battery power running, and extremely high levels of oxygen present in the base, indicating that the base's argon filters were no longer running. Sending down a shuttle to investigate, a standard complement away team was to investigate the base and report back what was going on.  
  
The standard away team was composed of six security personnel, two medics, two engineers, an officer in charge, and a pilot and communications person. The security team would assign one member to each other person, and the engineering team would be responsible for finding out what was going on and get basic services running again. The medical team would be responsible for taking care of any injured personnel, while the officer would be in charge of the whole team, and any communication with the remaining colony personnel. Finally, the pilot would use the shuttle's communications to keep the team in contact with the Excellon, while using the shuttle's sensors to scan the area for anything interesting. The shuttle could also request help from the Excellon's sensors in case anything unusual was found, and additional power was needed to identify.  
  
Arriving at the colony, the shuttle team saw that the main landing areas were full of plants, and the pilot began using the shuttle's laser to slowly clear an area to land. The security team got out first, and began using their weapons to clear a path to the main colony buildings. Getting halfway there, they heard voices.  
  
"Over here, this way, thank goodness you've arrived."  
  
It turned out that the colony's main fusion reactor had failed due to proper maintenance, and had lost containment. With no gravitational field to pressurize the deuterium for fusion, the reaction had stopped immediately, and the batteries had been brought on-line to keep the colony going. Solar power had been useless, as the plants covered any solar panels within a few days. The local shuttles used more complex power storage, but still depended on the colony's reactor for recharging their power cells. The net result was that the colony was running out of power, and as the date for the solar flare approached, the people were getting more and more concerned.  
  
To save power, the colony had decided to set all of the doors open, and run on minimal lighting. The bioluminescent plants had been planted, and were currently providing plenty of light inside the colony, though they needed to be brought out of the colony every few days to receive sunlight to recharge their chemical supplies.  
  
The colony was doing quite well for food, as the food plants had gotten loose inside the station, and were thriving in the high carbon dioxide environment. The colony had been doing quite well, except for not having any communications with the rest of the Federation. However, with all the doors open, when the solar flare arrived, the colony would be incinerated, and that had been a definite damper on people's spirits.  
  
The spare components had been among the supplies the Excellon was transporting, and soon the colony's main reactor was back on-line, and the respective leaders were talking to one another. Captain Morgan was talking to the colony's administrator, and their conversation went like this:  
  
"Mrs. Prokelon, I'm glad to see your colony is getting better, but I have to admit I am curious about why you didn't notify starbase 121 about your situation."  
  
"Simple Captain. We did. We sent four different communications attempts to them, and then stopped after it became clear that nothing was headed our way, even though Starbase 121 said that something would be sent. Also, the subspace communicators required a heck of a jolt to send a message, and we needed the power to run basic life support here. Recycling materials, running the genetics lab to breed the plants we needed here, and running the defoliants seemed more important at the time.  
  
"I was curious myself, as Starfleet didn't send out any ships to pick up the food crops we had. We were wondering about it, as it seemed rather odd. Do you know why they haven't sent any ships out?"  
  
"Yes I do. It seems as though one of the colonies out here is intercepting ships and shuttles. We are trying to find out who it is, and would appreciate any information you might have on that."  
  
"I'll see what we can do, though without main power, all our sensors were unplugged, as we were trying to keep enough power to survive the solar flare. We kept the subspace receiver on a little longer, as it required less power, but we were forced to turn that off as well. But I will get together with my staff, and give you a complete copy of all our sensor records if you wish."  
  
"That would be wonderful. I'll have my computer people standing by for your data."  
  
The data was transferred, and the sensor people sat down, trying to find out anything useful out of the data given to them. But no matter how long they stared at it, there was nothing useful in there. There were the usual, nebulae, drifting hunks of rocks, and basic readouts on nearby systems. The data was filtered, and nothing that they could identify was there. Finding no new evidence to suggest the missing shuttles and ships were in the Sherrizin system, the Excellon continued its route.   
  
*  
  
The same procedure repeated itself as the Excellon continued its tour of the various colonies. Verrin five, Gollar one, Detrin outpost, Eilar three, Fendrin eight, and other colonies were visited. Each one showed signs of being out of contact with the Federation, and all reported that they had been out of contact with the starbase as far as supplies went, and no sign was found of any missing shuttles or ships in their systems.  
  
Captain Morgan finally called his senior staff into the main meeting room, as the Excellon went towards Starbase 121. Everybody was looking a little tired, and the fact that they had found nothing to show for their efforts gnawed at them. They knew that the shuttles and ships had disappeared, but there had been no trace of them anywhere. They were getting their message ready to send to starbase 121, and were deciding how to word it appropriately-  
  
The Ops officer suddenly jerked upright, as his communicator buzzed. He was startled as he had given orders not to be disturbed, and was curious as to what this was about. He held the communicator up to his ear for a moment, and then looked at the others in the room, the color draining from his face.  
  
"Captain, we just got a message from starbase 121. They say that the colony on Ritzak five is complaining that the module freighter never arrived. They've been waiting for the past two months, and there still hasn't been any sign. Commander Wilson is asking if we know anything about this."  
  
The rest of the staff was looking at him as though he was crazy. The weapons officer spoke up first. "But that's impossible! We went over that route, and there was nothing there that would harm a freighter."  
  
The rest of the staff started babbling in complete agreement, and the Captain silenced all of them. "All right. We think that it is impossible, but it happened. Deal with it. We will alter our route, to come back along the course the Amemnon would have taken on the way to Ritzak five from starbase 121, and we will go over it with a fine-toothed comb. If there are any anomalies, and I mean any, I want you to analyze it until you have identified the reason for it. If you can't find a reason, then we will investigate it until we find a reason. Do I make myself clear?"  
  
There was a chorus of "Yes, sir??s, and the officers went to do their jobs. The Excellon altered heading to go past Ritzak five, on their way to starbase 121, and the sensor operators dug out the data from the previous run, and began comparing each section of their passage, with the corresponding part from their initial travel.  
  
Day after day crawled by, as the sensor logs were examined down to the square meter, which in space is very high resolution indeed. There were the same accumulation of space debris as before, a few comets, an asteroid, but one of the nebulas showed a slight change. The change was as though a lot of energy had been applied in one direction, in one area, similar to that of an impulse drive in operation. Unfortunately, it appeared as though the energy had been directed away from the Amemnon's path, so the Amemnon could not have gone that way.  
  
The tactical officer presented his findings to the Captain, and the Captain looked over it as well.  
  
"So whatever this is, it could not be the Amemnon?"  
  
"No Captain. The energy pattern is all wrong. If it was the Amemnon, the dispersion would be in a much smaller area. All of this nebula change means that the impulse drive was from a larger source, speaking in terms of area of the exhaust. Also, given the speed of the retreating particles, I would say that the engine is just as good as ours, if not better."  
  
"So it would be as though someone hid behind the nebula, waited for the Amemnon to come by, and popped out in time to attack her?"  
  
"That looks like, my gosh, that fits the data perfectly! The nebula would screen against most sensors, and a high thrust engine would allow the unknown to get right on top of Amemnon. But how did they manage to surprise Amemnon without the Amemnon sending out a message?"  
  
"Is there anything in the volume that would have prevented the Amemnon from sending out a message?"  
  
"Nothing at all Captain."  
  
"Then the only possibility is that a Federation ship managed to get in close to the Amemnon, and communicate with her to keep quiet. When they were close enough, they would have either boarded and taken over the engine room and comm center, or simply fired at them from the outside and crippled the engine room and communications center that way.  
  
"In either case, we are looking at traitors to the Federation, and we know what have to do."  
  
"Yes Captain. Do you also want me to load the vertical launch cells with variable-yield nuclear missiles?  
  
"Yes. We'll give them a chance to surrender, but if they want a fight, it's a fight they'll get.  
  
So the Excellon cruised through space, heading towards Starbase 121. Captain Morgan wanted to get this information out to the other colonies, and the Starbase had the necessary communications hook-ups. He also wanted to get fresh supplies for the Excellon, especially related to weapons and other ordnance.  
  
*  
  
Arriving at Starbase 121, Captain Morgan ordered the weapons crews to begin loading the vertical launch bays with variable yield nuclear missiles. This would allow him to determine the size of the warhead to be used against the Federation ship doing the attacks.  
  
The base's crew was also busy, loading up the Excellon with combat supplies, ranging from weapons, to several pallets of spare parts for weapons systems. A local asteroid miner had come back, so there were several more rounds prepared for the Gauss cannon, bringing a full load of Gauss slugs on board. Various exotic chemicals were loaded, designed to allow the Excellon to replace the lasing rods of the lasers in case they were cracked.  
  
The Excellon's main lasers were only ten centimeters wide, but being over one hundred meters long, carrying spares of that size was not feasible. What had been done was to design a laser system with two-meter long sections, and whenever a section cracked, that section would be removed, and the sections further towards the tail would be moved up to keep the beam ready. At the end, there were systems for mounting additional sections. So as the sections got used and cracked during combat, extras would be loaded in at the rear, and attached to the main chain as combat permitted.  
  
To properly focus the lasers, two gas lenses were used at the forward point, and the air inside was not subjected to the normal gravity. The first chamber was spun, and the resulting change in air density was enough to slightly alter the focal point of the particles making up the laser stream. The second was also spun, but at a constant rate, and was used to aim the laser beam at targets slightly off-axis.  
  
A similar system of sections was used for the laser turrets, but only three sections were used for each. The sections were buried within the ship, and mirrors were used to channel the laser to the target. A gas rotation was also used, but the gas rotation was used before the laser energy struck the mirrors, to prevent that systemry from being outside the hull when combat occurred. Since all the lasers used the same sections, it was a simple matter for one set of replacements to serve any laser on board the ship.  
  
Since there was more room for cooling equipment, the turret lasers could be run for longer periods than the main lasers, and as such were used to keep a steady beam on the target. The main lasers though, heated up so quickly that they could only be used for twenty seconds at a time. Those twenty seconds though, usually meant life for the ship firing, and death for the ship being fired upon.  
  
The Gauss system was designed along similar lines, with various numbers of acceleration rings used to fire a projectile. If one set of acceleration rings was damaged, they were simply removed, even while combat was occurring, and replaced with new ones. After combat was over, the engineering staff could go over the rings and figure out if they could be repaired or not. If not, the parts were used to repair other rings that were damaged.  
  
The final result of this segmentation was that even under stress, the main weapons could keep firing, and the shipboard personnel could restore them to combat capability. The key detail with the lasers was to keep the rear mirror in the appropriate place, and as a result the Excellon carried three for each laser. The normal configuration was one in use, one to place after the replacement laser rods, and a spare. When the new rods were installed, a new mirror was set up at the rear, and when the bridge okayed the crew to reset the laser; the original mirror was pulled out, allowing the laser to access the new sections.  
  
The vertical launch systems were designed with similar functionality in mind, so that even if there was a gaping crater where one cell used to be, the computer could easily switch to another cell, and keep firing missiles from it. The easiest way to reload a missile cell was to use the shuttles to pull out the old canisters, and transfer a new one in. By landing a shuttle on the ship's hull, and cutting off gravity in that region, the shuttle could start the transfer process. The crystal armor was designed to be on panels there, so the panels would flip up, and the magnetic clamps on the shuttles would attach to those as it removed the old cell, and put in a new one. As there was no gravity to worry about, the only problem was that of the mass of the missile cell itself.  
  
The variable yield missiles were designed to allow any size warhead from one to ten megatons to be selected, in half-megaton increments. It was not as powerful as a properly designed warhead, which was capable of fifteen megatons, but that was a hammer, while this missile was a scalpel. By tailoring the missile yield, the EMP effects could be adjusted for maximum effect, without obliterating the target vessel when the warhead exploded.  
  
The starbase commander looked at the Captain, and said, "You know, this is the only trouble I've had in this sector, and you look like you're about to go to war."  
  
"I am figuring that whoever did this was powerful to keep the other ships from even getting a message away, and I want to have a polite reply ready for when I meet them. I also want to make sure they listen."  
  
"Well, I know I'd listen, seeing what you're loading up there."  
  
"Let's hope they do too."  
  
The two of them then went back to their respective tasks, one hoping the problem could be cleared up rapidly, the other knowing what could happen in combat, and dreading how many might be lost.  
  
*  
  
The Excellon then went out again, but received another transmission from the starbase. One of the warp-capable shuttle pilots was scheduled to go out, and he wanted to go with them. Although it would hold them down to the shuttle's speed, Captain Morgan immediately agreed. This way, the only way for the renegades to get to the shuttle was through him and his ship.  
  
The two ships then set off, with the Excellon leading the shuttle by a quarter light second, intending to get the cargo through, and find out who was raiding the ships. They wound their course by Ritzak five, observing the same nebulae and other phenomena, and getting especially tense as they passed the nebula with the slight change in its edge.  
  
But nothing happened. The entire trip there was boring, save for only a General Quarters drill during the passage past the nebula, but nobody appeared to attack the shuttle. Captain Morgan was curious about what had happened, but was willing to slightly relax as his ship and the shuttle arrived at their destination, the Detrin outpost.  
  
The Detrin outpost was a mining colony, extracting various lighter ores containing phosphorus, aluminum, and similar metals from the asteroid belt. There were heavier metals deeper in the planets, but Starfleet figured that by the time the other ores were starting to get low, the necessary technology would have been developed to get to the deeper ores. In the meantime, the colony ran a small fleet of mining vessels, whose sole job was to use the laser spectroscope and small charges to analyze an asteroid, and to break it up to store the useful pieces on board the small shuttles.  
  
The laser spectroscope was merely used to vaporize parts of asteroids, while the main colony would analyze the emissions from the vaporized material. Standard procedure was to arrange a sector to be scanned before launching, fire several shots with the laser to get vapor samples, and home in on the ones selected by the main base. The charges would be placed in critical junctures on an asteroid, and then detonated; to make the rock fracture and the pieces could then be loaded onto the shuttle.  
  
One person had tried to simply tie a wire from the rear of the shuttle to larger rocks, but had run into trouble with the warp field and towing the rock. If the line was too short, the impulse drives would vaporize the wire attached around the rock during its trip, while if the wire was too long, the warp field was strained. The second idea proposed by him was to use a smaller version of the module freighter, with a simple shuttle front that would attach to the asteroid, and the impulse engines would be mounted to thrust around the rock. However, the same problem arose, in that the asteroid could only be a certain size to fit between the impulse exhaust. Since the shuttles had a large rear hatch, it was easy for a shuttle to simply back up to the processing facility, unload the asteroid(s) quickly, and go back out. He was still working on new ideas, but the colony administrator generally filed them in the circular filing cabinet.  
  
The colony relied on imports for food, and the people there were glad to see the shuttle. They had gotten down to three weeks of food, and since there was generally a two-week lag time between requests and arrival, they had been getting worried. With the shuttle there though, they had just received another four months of food supplies.  
  
The base had a large supply of processed ore available, and the colony started getting the processed ore on board the shuttle. As the large ingots were loaded on board, the Excellon's crew took the opportunity to look around the colony. The people there seemed sad, as though they did not enjoy their life there of hard work and mining. The shuttle crews were a different sort though, as they seemed very independent, and only associated with other shuttle crews. They seemed to look down upon the other colony members, which was odd as everybody knew that nobody was superior to another.  
  
The planet leave lasted for a day, and then it was time to head out. The shuttle was going back to Starbase 121, and Captain Morgan decided to join it. This had been the first shuttle run with no incidents, and he wanted to make sure that nothing happened on the way back. The same route was followed, with the Excellon in front, and the shuttle behind. Again nothing happened, and when the shuttle arrived at Starbase 121, the people there welcomed the pilot and the crew of the Excellon back with lots of hearty thanks.  
  
Two days after they arrived however, another shuttle was reported missing. This shuttle had been on Ventar four getting repairs to its power distribution system, and was carrying a load of electronic components to Starbase 121. The shuttle was declared missing, because its route should have brought it to the base the day before, and it had not arrived yet. This latest loss dampened everyone's spirits, and the mood at the base got worse.  
  
Captain Morgan and Commander Wilson met later on that day, to discuss the latest event. They were at a local pub, and were enjoying their drinks, discussing how to prevent any other losses.  
  
"Captain, I don't see what we can do. We are losing shuttles at a horrible rate, and my superiors are threatening to cut off my support unless we can stop the traitors. I want to try to do something, but everything I send out goes missing."  
  
"Commander, the problem that I can see is that the colonies are spread out, and their sensors cannot cover the routes to get from one colony to another. All any raider has to do is wait outside the colonies' detection radius, and wait for a shuttle to come by. There are several dozen star systems in this sector that aren't colonized, and any one of them could hide the base. I could search every system, but it would take too much time."  
  
"You're right Captain, but even if I had better sensors here to distribute, I wouldn't be able to send them to the colonies, as these traitors would simply pick up the shuttle, and grab the sensors for themselves. Then we'll have raiders with top-line sensors, instead of what we have now."  
  
"The only way to get to those raiders is to make them come into our sensor range, but nothing we've seen so far indicates they'd be that foolish. What I'd have to do is look enough like a freighter that they'd come close, but as soon as they saw my ship they'd realize I was no freighter, and run."  
  
"Too bad. I suppose that asking you to use your ship as a freighter in the meantime is asking a little too much?"  
  
"You'd be right. I thought about that, but I don't have enough room to be really useful. The best way that I can think of is to make a single route, and have a single ship fully loaded with the supplies. From there, I simply go around to each system, escorting the ship, while the ship drops off the supplies and picks up the products from each colony."  
  
"I know. Hey, there's another module freighter coming in next week. I can get my teams to work, and build a cargo module in orbit. Using its additional cargo storage, that module freighter could handle most of the supply shipments. Not all of them though."  
  
"You've got a good idea though, Commander. I can simply set up two or more trips for the module freighter to make, and it can drop off the supplies here each time it finishes. Also, I was reading a story about the World War that took place on Earth, in the early and mid twentieth century. One nation faced a similar problem, in which it had to get needed supplies from one continent to another, with stealthy raiders trying to intercept those shipments. I think the method they used was called a "convoy" system. Instead of having lots of freighters all over the ocean, the convoy system would have all the freighters in one solid group, far more easily protected by the escorting vessels.  
  
"Of course, if a raider got in among the freighters, it was guaranteed an easy selection of targets, but getting there was extremely difficult. I could do the same with my ship. Use the module freighter as the convoy, and my ship as the escort. If the renegades want to prey on a ship, they will have to get by me. I'll broadcast my status every day, so you will know roughly when we engage them."  
  
"Captain that's a great idea. Unfortunately, the module freighter isn't supposed to go through the sector. It is supposed to just come here, drop off its supplies, pick up the supplies, and return to main Federation space. Starfleet headquarters won't approve of the freighter being used in this fashion."  
  
"Commander, if the freighter comes here, it will return empty. If Starfleet asks about the freighter, tell them it was a choice of sending it back empty, or borrowing it for a few months and sending it back full."  
  
"Captain, they won't like it one bit. It'll mess up their schedules, ruin their maintenance schedule for the freighter, and will put their noses out of joint. Let's do it."  
  
Both of them left the pub that night, feeling much better about their chances of catching whoever was responsible for the thefts.  
  
*  
  
The next few days saw a flurry of activity. The shuttles at the Starbase were pressed into action, ferrying parts and workers up to a single structure in orbit. The structure was the skeleton of a cargo module, as the information to build was available in any Federation database, and easily constructed by any starbase in the Federation. The Excellon's crew was being trained in escort drills, with sensor crews being worked to identify everything they saw, and tactical drills so that weapons fire would not come near the freighter, even during extreme situations.  
  
The security details were being drilled also, on how to take over another ship, by using shuttles to deliver them to their target, and how to retake a freighter in case a pirate shuttle gets onto the freighter and the raiders storm out. Lieutenant (jg) Mallory was designing a few systems to aid in defending the Excellon, in case she was boarded.  
  
One time she was at a workstation, designing a new gadget, when Captain Morgan walked up behind her and looked at her schematic. The display on her screen showed what looked like a net, but with slight differences.  
  
"Lieutenant, what is that you are working on?" Captain Morgan called her Lieutenant, as adding the words junior grade or the letters 'JG after the rank every time it was said was very slow.  
  
"Um, Captain, what a surprise, um, I had a few ideas about how to keep any boarding parties entertained if they come on board. This is a spring-activated net system. In normal use, it simply lies on the floor, or attached to the walls or ceiling. If a local alert sounds, the net is triggered, and springs out of the wall, and attaches to the opposite side. The strings in it are diamond filament, and are very hard to break. By using thin filaments, and adding a dulling spray, the strings often won't be seen in time, and whoever is attacking will be caught in the net. Some other ideas I have thought of are using lights to create a strobe effect, a display system, using similar ideas as the main viewer, to create the image of a long hallway when it is actually a solid wall, and force fields, similar to the energy shields we use."  
  
"Good job Lieutenant. When you get finished with those ideas, set them into a report, and submit them, along with proposed locations for using them. Carry on."  
  
As Captain Morgan walked away, he admitted to himself, 'She is very clever. I'm glad she's on my ship.'  
  
*  
  
When the module freighter arrived, the captain was not very cooperative concerning the plan.  
  
"Look Commander, I am not allowed to deviate from my flight plan, no matter what. If I don't go to the next starbase after this one, they won't be able to deliver their cargo on time. Speaking of which, where's the cargo that's supposed to go in my ship?"  
  
"Not here. Look Captain, there have been a total of four ships and over twenty shuttles that have disappeared in the past six months, and you can guess what the result of that is. In short, I don't have the cargo here, except for one shipment, which will only occupy a corner of one of your holds."  
  
"Then what am I supposed to do? If I don't show up with the cargo, they'll assume I'm hiding it out somewhere, and they'll haul me in for questioning, and keep me there until they find out."  
  
"Well then, the only option left is to go around to the colonies and pick up the supplies yourself."  
  
"Well, uh, wait a minute Commander! You said that there have been all those ships and shuttles disappearing! What's there to prevent the same thing from happening to me?"  
  
"If you go along with this route, the Excellon will be able to escort you over your route. Also, the second cargo module in orbit will help to hold the required materials, so you can get to your next destination with a double-sized load. Does that make you a little bit happier?"  
  
"Well, I suppose so. But I don't like it. I'll do it, but I won't like it."  
  
The discussion was ended, and Commander Wilson sent a message off to Captain Morgan, telling him that the freighter captain would cooperate.  
  
The next day, the two ships left orbit, and accelerated onto the route laid out. The Excellon was in the lead, and the module freighter was trailing by one quarter of a light second, to keep the two ships close enough so that if anything happened, the Excellon would be in range to assist. The two ships traveled the route, the freighter captain sweating the entire time, the Excellon and her crew waiting, and even hoping something would show up.  
  
But nothing happened, as they went from colony to colony, and the freighter captain began to grow more and more abrasive to Captain Morgan. Captain Morgan in the meantime grew more and more concerned that whoever had done the attacks had left, and was even now striking other shuttles and ships in the Federation.  
  
But as they emerged from warp near the colony of Fendrin eight, a new sight greeted their eyes.  
  
"Captain, I have a ship in orbit, it's the Amemnon!"  
  
"What the? Communications, raise her!"  
  
"Attempting to do so now sir."  
  
Several minutes pass, far longer than it normally takes to contact a ship using subspace or radio. During this time, Captain Morgan tells the module freighter with them to hide in the outer system, in case something goes wrong. Also, Excellon is closing on the Amemnon, attempting to find out what is going on.  
  
"Communications, any response to our hail?"  
  
"None yet Captain."  
  
"Very well then. XO, bring this ship to General Quarters."  
  
The atonal siren rang throughout the Excellon, rousing crewmen, and telling them that they were needed. Within three minutes, the Excellon was ready for battle, and Commander Verrin reported the condition.  
  
"All systems manned and ready Captain. Shields are up, and weapons are ready."  
  
"Sensors, can you tell me anything about what is going on around here?"  
  
"Not much yet sir. We'll know more as we get closer though. We might lose our track of our module freighter though."  
  
"Hm, tell the captain of our freighter to proceed to the next planet in, so we can keep watch his ship too."  
  
"Doing it now Captain."  
  
"In the meantime, keep trying to raise the Amemnon."  
  
The Excellon proceeded further in-system, each time keeping the module freighter that had followed them moving in with the Excellon, so that if something happened, the Excellon could respond quickly.  
  
"Captain, we're getting better reads on the Amemnon and the colony. The colony seems to have lost main power, and some of the Amemnon's power reads are different. Not just modified as though by raiders, but totally different. It's as though a totally new technology was used in them, and the difference is enough to show up. I'm reading the differences in their warp field, and a couple of unusual power reads in the module attached to the ship."  
  
"Any idea what could cause the loss of main power at the colony?"  
  
"No idea Captain."  
  
"Very well then. We will proceed under the assumption that the Amemnon is operating under the command of an unknown force. XO, keep on the sensors to find out all you can about the colony. Most importantly, is the Amemnon rendering aid, or is it the cause of the colony's loss of power?"  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
More minutes passed, and suddenly, the XO called out, "Captain, there appear to be shuttles leaving the planet, and heading towards the Amemnon. Looks like they're getting ready to leave."  
  
"Can't let that happen; tactical, I want a missile solution on the Amemnon. Set three warheads for half a megaton, I want to get the Amemnon's attention. Have the missiles detonate beyond the Amemnon, and fire when I give the word."  
  
The tactical officer pressed the button, and the command raced through the ship's systems. Automatic systems tested the first missiles selected, and reported that one missile wasn't responding properly. Another missile was selected, and the three missiles were set to half a megaton, and readied for firing. The whole process had taken less than one hundredth of a second, and all the tactical crew knew was that three missiles were set properly.  
  
"Missiles are ready Captain, and are awaiting your orders."  
  
"Thank you. If the Amemnon tries to get away from us, I will use the missiles to discourage her. Communications, keep trying to raise her."  
  
"Captain, the Amemnon is heading towards us. We're also reading several unusual power sites on her hull. Looks like an additional power nexus has been set up on top and below the main hull. The module in the rear looks slightly different too. Since there are five shuttles currently in operation, they could have converted the module into a boat bay to hold the three additional shuttles."  
  
"Comm, any response yet?"  
  
"None yet Captain."  
  
"Fire a single missile, from the ones that are at a half-megaton, halfway between us and the Amemnon."  
  
The tactical officer pressed a button, and one of the missiles already set to half a megaton in yield was blown out of its launching tube by gas pressure, and the missile drive ignited in less than a hundredth of a second after that. Receiving the feed from the Excellon's sensors, the missile arched over towards the Amemnon in a fifteen G turn, and blasted towards the detonation point. In the span of a few seconds, the missile reached the point, and detonated.  
  
Five hundred kilotons of explosive fury vented itself on the space between the two ships, and the EMP effect raced out almost immediately behind the light from the explosion. The main screen in the Excellon automatically dimmed to protect the sight of the humans on board, but the Amemnon was not protected against the EMP as the Excellon was. Relays blew out in several sections, and lights flickered. But those apparently were the secondary systems, for the Amemnon charged through where the missile had detonated, and the five shuttles swerved towards the Amemnon.  
  
"Captain, they're heading right for us."  
  
"Very well then. If more than one shuttle approaches to within one kilometer, fire a turret laser to warn, then fire a second shot to cripple it. I want answers, and sifting debris won't give me enough of them."  
  
But not only were the five shuttles approaching, the Amemnon was too. Even worse, the Amemnon began firing on the Excellon!  
  
"Sir, incoming fire!"  
  
"Return fire with the main lasers! Turrets, cripple those shuttles!"  
  
Sensors told the weapons how far their targets were, and where they were heading. Computers calculated where the target would be, and minor adjustments were made. Lasers fired, pumping massive amounts of energy into thin lines that reached out to prevent those who would harm the Excellon from doing so. Gouts of vaporized metal flew from the sides of the shuttles attacking, and two holes were punched deep into the hull of the Amemnon. But the Amemnon and her shuttles were no less accurate, and twelve of their shots hit the Excellon?s shields.  
  
"Multiple hits Captain. They're savaging our shields. Forward shield down to seventy one percent and the Amemnon is still closing."  
  
"Target five missiles at the Amemnon, set for three megaton yield. Detonation range is one hundred meters. Fire when ready."  
  
More missiles received their orders, and the deadly sequence repeated. The missiles launched, and homed in on the vessel they were ordered to kill. Five explosions dotted the space near the Amemnon, yet she still came on. She was venting atmosphere, and looked like a cripple, yet her weapons still had power, and they fired again.  
  
"More hits Captain. Forward shields are down to forty nine percent, and two of the shuttles are still moving. I don't know what their weapons are, but they are nasty."  
  
"Helm, ninety degrees down, and Turrets fire on the Amemnon. If any shuttles get into a spot where they can fire on the forward shields, they have first priority."  
  
"Sensors, you said there were two points of unusual power nexii on the Amemnon. Have the weapons fire been coming from them?"  
  
"Um, yes captain."  
  
"Feed those coordinates to the dorsal turret. Dorsal turret, fire on that location."  
  
The turret on the top of the Excellon received the location, and fired both of its beams at the location. From the outside, the beams were invisible, but the effects on the Amemnon were noticeable. Sparks flew in the vacuum of space, as the weapons mounted there were subjected to torrents of particles burning away at their connections. A surge of sparks occurred as the beings controlling the Amemnon tried to fire the weapons, and the mount was silent.  
  
"Nailed it sir. Incoming!"  
  
More shots poured in from the Amemnon, but only from the second turret, and the impact knocked the dorsal shields down by fifteen percent. Damage Control crews labored on the units that had overloaded in the bow, feverishly trying to get them reset and re-energized before anybody else targeted there.  
  
"Sensors, feed the location of the other power nexus to the dorsal turret. Dorsal, can you hit around that spot, to try to cut those weapons off?"  
  
"Will try Captain."  
  
The gunner for that turret saw the site highlighted by sensors, on the bottom of the Amemnon's hull, and began tracking that point. Picking a spot one meter above and one meter to the left, the gunner began firing the laser, and guiding the beam to the right. The weapon mounted on the Amemnon was primarily outside the hull, and without its supporting skeleton and power feeds, now needed only a minor twitch to be snapped off.  
  
The sensor department gave out a small cheer as the power source disappeared from their screens, and Captain Morgan knew that the weapon was no longer a threat to his ship. While all this had been going on, the other turrets had managed to cripple the remaining shuttles, and there were a total of six weaponless craft floating near the Excellon. But the Amemnon still had its power plant, and the sensor department began to read a steady build-up of power from the reactor.  
  
"Captain, there seems to be a massive build-up in the Amemnon's main reactor." The sensor operator was sounding puzzled as the data was reported, and the confusion showed in his voice. "What the- lifeboat launching from the Amemnon!"  
  
But that wasn't the only thing to startle the sensor team, as the main reactor aboard the Amemnon had its containment pulled, and the plasma within was allowed to vent through the entire ship. The plasma raced through the passageways, vaporizing organic components and reducing the living and dead bodies on board to so much burnt organic material in the process.  
  
The shuttles began to drift at the same time, though whether that was due to seeing what had happened to their ship or due to the damage inflicted on them by the Excellon's lasers was difficult to tell. Since there was no more action being taken by any of the six hostile vessels, Captain Morgan began issuing orders to begin a salvage and investigation operation.  
  
"XO, connect me to the security team."  
  
"Here Captain."  
  
"Security? I want you to put together four teams. The first is to go down to the colony and find out what happened, the second is to go around to the shuttles and investigate them, the third to go out to the lifeboat and find out all you can from it, and the fourth is to go on board the Amemnon and find out what was going on there. Report back when your teams are complete and you are ready to go."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
"Helm, get us closer to the planet, I want to get some more information for the security team to have for when they go down there."  
  
"Yes sir."  
  
*  
  
The minutes passed as the Excellon approached the planet. The Amemnon was kept in sensor range the entire time, and the data kept piling up. The colony's power plant had several scars on the outside that appeared to be similar to lightning strikes, and the main communication center had similar scars.  
  
The security teams reported they were ready, and Captain Morgan gave them permission to use the four shuttles to complete their missions. The first team sped towards the planet's surface, intending to find out what was going on. The second team began going to the closest shuttle, while the third team headed towards the life pod and the fourth team went towards the Amemnon.  
  
The module freighter during this time was also heading towards the colony, and her captain sent a message to the Excellon, for Captain Morgan. It was a private message, intended for Captain Morgan only, so he took it in his chambers.  
  
"Captain Morgan, I would like to apologize for my comments earlier."  
  
"Captain, is there any particular reason for that?"  
  
"Essentially, I saw what you did to the Amemnon, and I'm guessing you wee holding back. It's starting to sink in among me and my crew just how much firepower you're packing there. I don't think a Falcon class cruiser could have taken care of the Amemnon as quickly or as effectively as you did."  
  
A Falcon class cruiser was a survey ship, designed to look for new systems, and survey them for useful materials and/or minerals. It had barely half the armament of the Excellon, so Captain Morgan knew the freighter captain was just trying to impress him.  
  
In the meantime Captain, I would like to start transferring cargo to the colony. Do you mind if I start?"  
  
"Actually Captain, I do. My security teams haven't even gotten to the planet yet to tell me what happened, and you want to start transferring cargo immediately? If your shuttles aren't loaded yet, you may load and launch them, but don't send them to the colony until I say so. After all, there may be more surprises down there."  
  
"Um, ah, yes Captain. I'll send them down when you say so."  
  
Captain Morgan broke the connection, and went back to the Bridge.  
  
"Captain, the third team has reached the life pod, and reports three people on board. They are bringing them and the life pod back, but report that the environmental system aboard the life pod seemed to be missing, sir. If they hadn't been using a reserve air supply, they would've only lasted half an hour in there.  
  
"They also wish to give a full report, but only one of them is fit enough to do so. The other two look like they've been, well, whipped. All three are showing lots of bruises, and one person seems to have several broken bones. They are in bad shape, and the boarding commander has already asked for medical assistance to meet them at the boat bay."  
  
"Very well then. I'm heading there too, and will want to talk to the team leader. Commander Verrin, you have the bridge."  
  
Captain Morgan walked out of the bridge into the passageway, his mind full of questions. 'Why would someone remove the environmental systems from a life pod? Who would whip someone resulting in such bad injuries?' But no answers presented themselves, and he had to content himself with knowing that the boarding commander would have a few answers.  
  
He arrived in the boat bay, but got to one side as he heard, "Medical emergency! Clear the way!" The ship's doctor was coming through with three gurneys, and one person was barely visible through all the hardware being used. The boarding commander had already gotten the life pod removed from the shuttle, and an engineering team was going over it, to find out everything they could.  
  
From where he was standing, Captain Morgan could see that it was a one-person life-pod, and that no maintenance had been done on it. In fact, several components had been removed from it, and those were critical components as well. The team leader was standing nearby though, and Captain Morgan went over to talk to him.  
  
"Lieutenant, can you give me a brief summary?"  
  
"Yes Captain. Off-hand, I'd say this life pod has been without maintenance for several weeks, almost the same amount of time since the Amemnon went missing. This is a one-person life pod, so I am wondering why they crammed three people in it. All three of them were wearing remnants of their uniforms, and I'd say those remnants were worn by them even as they were whipped. All three people had bruises, and there was blood on several parts of their uniforms as well. I'd have to get a lab to confirm, but I think it was their blood. They also appeared malnourished, and when one of my members offered them some survival rations, they ate them like crazy."  
  
"These people were in a bad place Captain. I don't know who did this to them, but I'd like to meet them one day."  
  
"Very well then. Where's the remaining person from the life pod?"  
  
"He's on the gurney over there being questioned by Chief Barrow. He's telling us whatever we want to know, and we've had a recorder running the entire time. We'll go over it later to get the complete story, but he seems to be saying that whoever was doing this wore suits the entire time, to hide their identities."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
"Yes sir." The team leader went back to his men, and continued the set-up. He would detail his men to watch the current crewman talking, and station his men to watch sickbay as well, in case these three people were faking. Of course, if they were faking, they were doing a good job, but a security leader doesn't trust anyone easily.  
  
"Bridge, any news from the other teams?"  
  
"Captain, team two has reached the first of the shuttles, and reports that it seems to be remote operated. They have found no sign of any pilot, and the cargo hold is empty. She's setting the shuttle up so it will be in a stable orbit, in case we want to salvage it. After that, she will proceed to each shuttle, and set them up in close orbits, to prevent them from crashing into the colony."  
  
"Good thinking. How are the other teams?"  
  
"Team one is two minutes out from the colony, and team four is one minute from the Amemnon. Team two is three minutes from finishing up the orbit, and then they'll move on to the next shuttle."  
  
"Very well then."  
  
The minutes now seemed to drag by, as Captain Morgan waited to hear the results from the two teams heading into unknown areas. He listened to the reports from each team, trying to find out anything that would help. He listened to team four as they reached the Amemnon, and began moving through the ship to certify it cleared. He listened as team one reached the colony, and began heading towards the buildings to clear them out as well.  
  
"In here, in here! We're Federation!"  
  
Captain Morgan heard the communications, and was startled as the communication was from the Amemnon! He listened further, and found out that the people speaking were from the colony, and had apparently been brought up there by the shuttles. But the other shuttles had also been coming from the planet? Were there people aboard them as well?  
  
The team exploring the colony had similar luck, finding all the colony personnel crowded into a warehouse, and the people there were overjoyed to see the Federation troops. As the troops explored further, they found what appeared to be large explosion sites on the colony, and the colonists reported that those locations had been where the raiders had self-destructed their suits.  
  
When all the teams had reported in, and the reports put together, the basic sequence had been like this; the Amemnon had come into orbit, and had broadcast the old transponder codes. The colony had been concerned, but had not notified Starbase 121 because the Amemnon was a Federation ship. When the Amemnon had gotten close enough, it used its weapons to cripple the communications array first, then the power plant. Without power, the colonists were helpless when the raiders arrived.  
  
The raiders killed the colony administrator, and herded everyone into the warehouse, killing everyone who was too slow. They had then sent the shuttles down, transferring people up twenty at a time to the freighter, where they were shoved in the back. The final group of people who were being ferried up when the Excellon arrived was not on board the Amemnon though. They had been jettisoned out the back of the shuttles to reduce their mass in the space combat that had occurred. The shuttles had been over twenty thousand feet from ground when that had occurred.  
  
The report from the survivor from the life pod wasn't that much better. He had been an engineer on the Amemnon, so was not mixed up with whoever had been on sensor duty. He hadn't been asleep when the attack had occurred, and everybody who had been on duty was dead. The raiders had caused the Amemnon to drop out of warp somehow, and had crippled her electronics, then boarded the ship. Anyone who had resisted was killed, and the intruders dealt harshly with anyone who didn't do as they gestured. They seemed to have a form of translator with them, and made their demands known through that. He had been part of the twelve remaining people who had been near an escape pod during the Amemnon's attack, and he and the two others had been chosen to get into the escape pod, as the other nine would keep the raiders away from them for as long as they could. His last sight of the nine had been the raiders butchering them in an attempt to get to the life pod he was in.  
  
The engineering team reported that several of the control components and all of the environmental components of the life pod had been removed. Apparently, whoever did this didn't want anyone getting away even with a useless life pod to warn anyone of what was going on. A further report of the weapons used had also been done, and the basic idea of the weapons was ridiculously simple.  
  
The weapons created a "sphere" of charged particles, and fired the "sphere" at the target. The charged particles would overload electrical connections, resulting in massive confusion on board as computer sections were lost. Since they were charged particles, the Excellon's shields would stop them, but shuttles and ships were helpless against them. Already the engineering team was working on modifications to the shield generators, to make them far more resistant to the attacks. It was little more than a system to use a "thicker" shield, to stop a charged particle penetration in one small area, instead of lots of particles over a large area. The shield could be controlled from the bridge, allowing the engineering officer to select the type of shields as the Captain demanded. But more research into the weapons was needed, and the Chief Engineer requested that they leave one of their shuttles behind in exchange for one of the armed shuttles used by the raiders.  
  
The shuttles had used a small weapon, and the turrets on the Amemnon were little more than a collection of five of those weapons set up to fire in the same direction. The Chief Engineer commented that it seemed fairly easy to build a larger weapon, and wondered why they hadn't done so. The general technology style of some of the components was radically different from normal federation components. These parts seemed to be designed for function, instead of a pleasing form like most Federation components. Also, several of the parts that were lying around seemed to have blood on them, as though they had been used to hit a crewmember when the holder felt like it.  
  
In the meantime, one of the officers asked what they should do about the Amemnon. Should they leave it here, destroy it, or return it to Starbase 121? The debate on that was short. Since the local area needed the shipping, the Amemnon would be returned to Starbase 121, where it would be refitted to Federation standards. The technology on board would be studied at the starbase, and the ship would be returned to cargo duty.  
  
Unfortunately, the Amemnon was not currently capable of warp travel. Since nobody wanted to let the Amemnon proceed along at sub-light to the Starbase, it was decided to dismantle the ship, and store it in the second cargo pod of the module freighter. The five shuttles were the final concern, and the colony administrator was afraid of letting go of all their firepower.  
  
"But surely Captain, you aren't planning on leaving us defenseless against whoever did this? We need those shuttles to protect ourselves in case their friends come here again."  
  
"I appreciate your concern Mr. Androsa, but none of those shuttles will be able to fly for several weeks, given the amount of damage they have received. In short, it will take three to four months for both yours and our facilities working together to repair those shuttles for service. And I have to move on to the next colony. If whoever did this struck at your colony, they might also be striking at other colonies as well."  
  
There was a general sense of shock that went around the table as the meaning of his statement sunk in. The Amemnon had been captured by another vessel, and that other vessel was somewhere out there. Even more worrisome, was that the other three ships that had disappeared might have also been converted like the Amemnon, meaning that there could be around four other vessels roaming out there.  
  
"But Mr. Androsa, your colony size says that you are allowed to have a warp-capable shuttle here, is that correct?"  
  
"Well, um, yes, but what are you going to do?"  
  
"Simple. We have four warp-capable shuttles on board, and a good team of engineers. Cheng (short for Chief Engineer), how long would it take you to attach one of these ion weapons to one of our shuttles and rig it so it can be fired from the cockpit?"  
  
"A couple of hours sir, if I start now. But sir, won't that cut our shuttle amount?"  
  
"I want you to do it. And it won't cut down on our complement, because one of those shuttles out there is the same type that we normally carry. The armed shuttle out there will take the place of ours, and your repair crews are going to be busy for a few weeks.  
  
"Administrator, does that make you a little happier?"  
  
"Well, yes. But what about when we have to use that shuttle for regular trips and supply runs? We'll be defenseless while it's gone then."  
  
"No. I am using the module freighter with us to do all the cargo runs, and am escorting it myself. Your shuttle will be used strictly for local work. All inter-system traffic will be handled by us. We are also going to have an engineering team on the module freighter carrying the Amemnon. They will be responsible for getting its warp system ready for operation. Once we're done fixing it, the Amemnon will take over cargo shipments between planets."  
  
"Um, very well then, thank you."  
  
The meeting was concluded shortly after that, and the Chief engineer went down to begin breaking the news to his teams. He had already picked out the enlisted team to refit the shuttle, and was working on the other two teams as he left.  
  
Since merely refitting the shuttle didn't require a lot of work, he pulled in a petty officer and four enlisted to get the job done quickly. The warp realignment could be done during the trip back to Starbase 121, so the same team could be used for that also. The remaining job of repairing the shuttle would take a while, and he selected a chief, three petty officers, and ten enlisted to get to work on it.  
  
*  
  
In a couple of hours, the job of refitting the Excellon's shuttle was done, and the replacement crew from the colony arrived to take possession of it. In the meantime, a second shuttle was returning with one of the crippled shuttles, and the engineering team assembled looked at the deep gashes in its sides and whistled. The team that was assigned to look after the Amemnon also took the opportunity to have the other four shuttles moved into the same cargo hold as the Amemnon, in case they had any free time. The module on the rear of the Amemnon was attached to the rear of the current module chain, and the two ships turned to head back to Starbase 121.  
  
The repairs to the shuttle took a long time, and many of the parts had to be literally rebuilt from supplies on board. One of the enlisted working on the shuttle had managed to snag the assignment of figuring out how the interface worked between the computer, and the targeting system for the energy weapon. Another team managed to get to the life-support system, and was working on it, trying to find the normal operating environment of whoever had controlled the shuttle.  
  
When they Excellon and the module freighter finally reached Starbase 121, the Amemnon was fully patched, and ready to conduct warp tests. The armed shuttle on the Excellon was put on board the Amemnon, and another shuttle from the Excellon was sent to the Amemnon to make up its full complement. Another armed shuttle was transferred to the Excellon, and supplies to replace what was used and other repair parts were transferred from the Starbase. The shuttle transfer resulted in the Amemnon having one armed and one unarmed shuttle, and the Excellon having two unarmed and two armed but damaged shuttles. The remaining damaged armed shuttle was carefully flown to the Starbase, to be fully analyzed by the experts there.  
  
The module freighter's captain that had accompanied the Excellon said that it was time for them to head on to the next system, and that the Starbase shouldn't worry about the missing load. In the meantime, the cargo module holding the Amemnon had been left behind, and the Amemnon was about to undergo warp testing.  
  
The module freighter was brought to the edge of the system under its on power, and readied its warp core for action. The engineering crew from the Starbase brought the warp core on line, and did a one and a half second jump. The warp core performed properly and everybody was satisfied that they had taken an important step to reclaiming this area for the Federation.  
  
Returning to the Starbase, the Excellon and the Amemnon reviewed their communications links, and set out to complete their runs. A team of people had been "borrowed" from the Starbase, and there had been several local "volunteers" as well. Captain Morgan wasn't that keen to trust them, so a security team from the Starbase had also been assigned to the Amemnon, in case anyone had second ideas about wanting to work. Since the security team was skilled in areas besides fighting, they fit into the crew with no disruption.  
  
The Excellon had all the parts they needed for another trip, and with fresh missiles from the Starbase, they were ready to head out again. The two ships headed out of the gravity well of the star, and continued on their route. Several General Quarters drills were held, and with the fresh combat on their minds, everyone on board the Excellon concentrated on their job. They knew that someone had attacked the Amemnon, and was probably still out there.  
  
But the trip to the remaining colonies was uneventful, and the Excellon and the Amemnon got on their way to Starbase 121. They had found nothing unusual, but every colony out there was now demanding protection from whoever had done the attacks. After all, if Fendrin eight could be attacked, then so could any of them. Captain Morgan wound up leaving each colony with a headache due to the arguments that occurred. Each colony had demanded an armed shuttles or weapons to arm themselves with, and Captain Morgan had told them that Federation charter had stated that colonies were not allowed weapons.  
  
That excuse had not sat well with the Administrators, and Captain Morgan had liked it even less. He knew that the charter had been written that way to prevent any colony from trying to rebel, but he also knew that all the people here were scared. He briefly considered disobeying the rules, but dismissed the thought at once. He was out here as a representative of the Federation, and he was determined to keep the image of the Federation clean.  
  
*  
  
While the Excellon was returning to Starbase 121, Commander Verrin was on the bridge when the sensor department reported something unusual. There had been a faint warp trail ahead of them, but it had disappeared within a couple seconds of spotting. Given the current state of ship disappearances, any unusual signals were to be investigated immediately.  
  
"Tactical, can you get any better resolution on the warp trail?"  
  
"Not yet Commander. We're running it through all our scanners, but it matches nothing that we know of. We'll tell you if we can get anything better on it."  
  
"Good." Commander Verrin then called the Captain's quarters, and told him about the signal. "Captain, we've picked up a faint signal, and it disappeared a couple seconds after we spotted it. We're trying to get a better resolution right now, and I'm going to warm up the shields and weapons."  
  
"Very well then. Warm up the shields and weapons, and call me if anything changes."  
  
As the Excellon approached the location of where the warp signature had disappeared, everyone's tension grew. They had not managed to get any new information from the warp signature, and were nervous about what might be waiting for them. Since they were escorting the Amemnon, they couldn't just head of in one direction, so the entire crew had nothing to do but wait as they approached.  
  
But even as they reached the closest approach to the signature, nothing happened. Commander Verrin modified the cruising formation to keep the Excellon between the last location of the warp signature and the Amemnon, in case anything happened.  
  
But the return to Starbase 121 was boring, and the Excellon arrived in orbit with the Amemnon. The full cargo module was dropped off, being simply detached to allow an empty one to be attached. There was also a message for Captain Morgan from Starfleet command, complaining about his taking over a Federation freighter and throwing all of their schedules off.  
  
There was an empty cargo module there, as the Starbase teams had managed to construct a second module. Before talking to Commander Wilson though, Captain Morgan had talked with his senior staff, and the Chief Engineer had figured that a conductive net would help to reduce the damage from the ion attacks. A simple mesh over the outside of a ship would channel the power from the hull to a storage battery, or other power system.  
  
The only problems would occur with the power of the energy weapons. Although the mesh as currently designed would be able to handle one shot from the small craft weapons every two seconds, faster firing would cause the mesh to melt from the resistance, while the simple kinetic impact would cause the mesh to degrade over time. If larger weapons were used, the mesh would be pretty much useless, but against smaller weapons, the mesh would work.  
  
A battery system was designed to hold the excess charge, but the simple size of the batteries required, for the power being delivered, was going to be a limiting factor. The Chief Engineer figured that they could install batteries on board the Amemnon, but those batteries would only be able to handle fifty shots before being in risk of exploding from having a full charge. This gave the Amemnon only one and a half minutes before being in danger from the battery exploding.  
  
Captain Morgan communicated with Commander Wilson, sending him the designs for the conductive mesh and the batteries. The Commander looked over the designs, and got his engineering teams working on the ideas. While talking, Commander Wilson reported that he had been hiring new engineers to help out with the building projects that were going on. The local population had grumbled at first, but when the new jobs began funneling Federation credits into the town, the grumbling stopped.  
  
After the Excellon arrived at Starbase 121, several people were down on shore leave. While down there, a junior officer had noticed the construction going on, and had found out about the mesh. Returning to the Excellon, that officer had started to design a similar mesh, but this one was designed to be wrapped around a cargo module. It would be removable, so that other starbases would not find out about it, and the batteries inside could be twice as large as the ones in the main ship. Submitting his design to his superior, the design caught the eye of the Chief Engineer, who then submitted it to the Captain.  
  
The construction work proceeded slowly though, as the mesh had to be assembled on the ground, then transported up to the Amemnon in orbit. The batteries also had to be built on the ground and shuttled up as well, and that was taking more time. Captain Morgan looked at the schedule required for the completion, and grumbled. It would take four weeks to complete the initial mesh system, and that would only be fore the crew portion of the Amemnon. The cargo section would still be vulnerable, and any hits on the modules would be simply conducted into the Amemnon.  
  
Suddenly, an idea came to him. Turning to his communications console, he sent a call to Commander Wilson. "Commander, do you have any shield generators down there?"  
  
"Yes we do Captain. Do you need any extras?"  
  
"Not me. I was thinking more along the lines of putting them on the Amemnon instead. Our shields were able to handle the ion blasts fairly well, and with some minor modifications, we should be able to handle them easily next time."  
  
"Captain, Federation law states that freighters are not allowed to have shields. I mean, they would be nice to have on board, but we have to obey the law that says civilian freighters are not allowed to have shields."  
  
"Since Starfleet personnel are mainly crewing the Amemnon, is it still a civilian vessel?" Asked Captain Morgan, with a smile on his face  
  
"Well, I suppose if you put it that way, it isn't completely a civilian ship." Commander Wilson was looking off to one side now, obviously hesitant about continuing along this thread.  
  
"So if a ship is crewed by Federation personnel, it becomes part of Starfleet, and thus is allowed to have shields. Correct?"  
  
"I suppose so Captain. But what about the programming job to redo the shields to the proper shape of the Amemnon's hull? I mean, you would have to configure the shields for having no modules, one module, two modules, and for three modules."  
  
"We can attach one module to it now, and configure the shields for just the one. During the trip, we can get the groundwork made up for the other configurations as well. In this case, it is merely a change to the shield equation concerning its shape. We would have to redo a few emitters and attach them to the generator. In fact, the forward half of the shields could stay the same, and the rear part would require the four different emitters.  
  
"So Commander, can you release those shield generators?"  
  
"I believe I can now Captain. But remember, those generators were normally supposed to replace ones that get damaged on your ship. If you lose a generator, it will be three months before we can get new ones."  
  
"Can you order new ones now?"  
  
"Well, I suppose I could. After all, I haven't submitted the full report of what happened during your engagement, so merely adding a few generators to the list would be easy. In fact, I could even say that the Amemnon required almost full rebuilding in order to get more spare parts here."  
  
"Good. I'm glad we understand each other. Excellon out." Turning from his screen, Captain Morgan almost paled at the thought of someone being able to lie so easily to superiors to get spare parts. But then again, he had done nearly that in order to get the Amemnon equipped with shields. 'Where is the dividing line? How will I know when I've gone too far?' But those questions were dismissed for now, as he got the shields crew together to get the new generators rigged up on board the Amemnon.  
  
*  
  
Two days later, the Excellon and the Amemnon were ready to go out again. The Amemnon had tested out with its shield generators, and all had worked well. Starbase 121 was assembling the mesh covering for when they returned, and it would be ready to install. The key problem with the shields was that they would draw a lot of power. As a result, the only thing that the Amemnon could do while the shields were up was maneuver and uses its basic sensors. Warp travel was impossible, as was any subspace communications.  
  
The standard orders that had been set up was that if the Excellon was out of communications with the Amemnon for more than a minute, the Excellon would head towards the Amemnon's last position on communications at maximum warp. To keep the constant communications open, several games were set up, with players on both ships. This way, the games would keep the crews entertained, and the communications required would allow the two ships to stay in contact.  
  
While traveling though, they were forced to slow to impulse to avoid a subspace disruption. It was similar to the one they had seen before, and they knew that it would dissipate in four minutes. While they traveled through it on impulse, a scanner technician suddenly called out, "Incoming ship! Coming in at two-thirds impulse."  
  
Of course, the impulse rating was relative to the ships originally designed. As a result, most ships these days could go full impulse at normal operation. Impulse speed had been selected as the maximum acceleration one of the original impulse powered vessels could go. The name had caught on, and was now widely used as a meter stick. Since this vessel was coming in at two-thirds impulse that meant it was coming in at two-thirds the top acceleration of one of the old impulse driven ships. Since no normal cargo vessel was designed to go that fast, this was a problem.  
  
"Shields up, and get the lasers and missiles ready." He then called the Captain, "Captain, we've got an unidentified ship closing at two-thirds impulse. Recommend we go to General Quarters."  
  
"Do it. I'll be there in two minutes."  
  
The atonal alarm rang through out the ship, and crewmen stopped their games and reported to their battle stations. The lasers were brought on-line, and missiles awoke to do their deadly missions. As the unknown ship approached, Commander Verrin continued to send communications signals to it, hoping for a reply. After all, the Amemnon had not been able to move at that rate, meaning that this ship, if hostile, was probably in better shape than what the Amemnon had been.  
  
Captain Morgan arrived on the bridge, and looked at the tactical map. He gasped in surprise, as the Amemnon was currently between and slightly above a line between the Excellon and the unknown.  
  
"Sir, I have a rough ID on the ship. It's the Potenton, a module freighter that went missing here two months before we arrived. Its power signature is changed even more than the Amemnon's had been though."  
  
"Keep on scanning."  
  
Turning to Commander Verrin, Captain Morgan said, "Commander, we're behind the Amemnon. You do realize that if this ship opens fire on us, they will hit the Amemnon first?"  
  
"Oh my gosh. I never thought of-"  
  
"But on the other hand, the other ship might not be able to see us. So far all they might know is that the Amemnon is there. And since the Amemnon was originally used by the raiders in this sector, they might think the Amemnon is friendly."  
  
"Comm, raise the Amemnon. Low power systems only."  
  
"Hello, Lieutenant Gordon? Are there any signals being sent towards you?"  
  
"Captain, thank goodness you called. We've been getting lots of communications from the unknown ship, but we've been unable to translate them. It's a totally new language, and we're working on it. Do you want us to relay it to you?"  
  
"Yes. We'll have fun working on it as well. Relay it on this frequency, and use a second frequency to give us the data on frequency use and any scrambling. This way we can try to translate their language, and if they are hostile, we can try to break their codes."  
  
The communications setup was one, and the Excellon's computers began working on the task of deciphering the language. A second program was running to look for patterns in the signals, trying to find how the pattern repeated. A copy was kept of all the original data, so that heavier computers could try to crack it later on as well, looking for patterns between solar activity, and other such phenomena.  
  
After two minutes though, the communications stopped, and the unknown ship began to close in. Both crews began to tense up, and the tracking crews began plotting missile solutions to engage the unknown ship with. The shield crews on the Amemnon were beside their generators, making sure that the generators would work the first time. Since the shields were all being powered by one generator in the front half, if that generator went down, there would be no protection there.  
  
As the crew watched, the unknown ship began closing to the theoretical range of the energy weapons. At that point, Captain Morgan ordered them, "Helm, bring us down thirty meters, and then full impulse towards that ship. Tactical, lock lasers and missile on that ship."  
  
The sensor crew was boring holes in their screens, watching for the Potenton's reaction as the Excellon suddenly became visible to its sensors. As a result, they were able to call out in time, "Captain, incoming fire. Same type of ion weapon as before, and it's firing in five shot bursts."  
  
"Execute Fire plan Charlie." Fire Plan Charlie had been set up as a coordinated effort between sensors and the turrets to cut off sections of an enemy ship. In effect, the sensor team did what they had done before; feed the data from the sensors to the turrets, and the turrets would attempt to cut through the enemy ship to cripple those weapons. The main lasers weren't used because they would cut straight through the Potenton, and Captain Morgan wanted that ship back.  
  
But even as the words came out of his mouth, the ion bolts streaked in from the Potenton's weapons. Ion bolts slammed into the Excellon's shields, but the improvements worked, and there was only a five percent reduction in shield strength. The lasers bored in though, and seared through power connectors and structural supports, cutting off the ion cannons as they had done before.  
  
But those five ion cannons weren't the only ones the Potenton was armed with. A larger cannon had been mounted on top of the hull, and with the Excellon's maneuver, it finally had a target for its main weapon. A single ion bolt was fired, but it was more powerful than the smaller guns had been. It crossed the distance between the two ships, and crashed into the Excellon's forward shields like a hammer.  
  
"Impact, forward shields down to seventy five percent." called out a report, and Captain Morgan paled as the damage was shown on his console. "Fire Plans Charlie and Nova, execute." Again the lasers reached out to cripple the horrible gun, while Nova was a simultaneous launch of four missiles set to five megatons each and ordered to detonate within one hundred meters of their target.  
  
The lasers began carving their way through the Potenton's hull, but this gun had more structural support, and the turret lasers were taking a little time to cut through. But the missiles arced over and around the Amemnon, and detonated their loads near the Potenton, searing her hull with nuclear fire and her electronics with effects that were not to be denied.  
  
The Potenton's acceleration stopped as the final waves of EMP washed over her, and the hull began to cool down. It was still drifting towards the Excellon and the Amemnon, but it was without any sort of control now. The two ships simply moved out of its way, and watched as the Potenton made no attempts to change its course.  
  
Captain Morgan turned to Commander Verrin and said, "Commander, let's bring another ship back. Set up the security details, and find out what happened." Turning back to his console, he watched as the damage control teams reported no significant casualties from the major hit. A couple people had gotten burned when their shield generator had thrown out a spark, and one person's hair was still sticking out, but those were the only casualties. The shield generator was even now being repaired to full service, and would be completed in two minutes. Since it was a simple matter of swapping out the necessary parts, the repairs were far easier than if the generator had burned completely out.  
  
The security teams went over to the Potenton, and Lieutenant Mallory reported in, "Commander, whoever was on this ship didn't get a chance to use the fusion plant to wipe themselves out. There are several beings here who wish to thank us for rescuing them, including the scanner crew of the Amemnon. The main computer core is wrecked though, but we are currently putting together a retrieval of the spare. If the Amemnon can help us, we can get the main computer back up and running enough to keep us in decent shape until we get to the next colony."  
  
"Are there any other survivors?"  
  
"Several Commander. There are three races we've never seen before, and a fourth being who is there simply to serve as a translator. At least, that's what it has been doing for us."  
  
"Very well then. I'll pass your recommendation along to the Captain about salvaging the ship. In the meantime, try to find as many survivors as you can, and give them medical help. Anything else?"  
  
"Nothing yet Commander. When we find anything new, we'll call you."  
  
"Commander Verrin out."  
  
She then turned back to the communications console, and opened a communications link to Captain Morgan. "Captain, the security reports that we can salvage the Potenton with several spares from the Amemnon. Also, there are at least three new races aboard that ship, apparently not counting the ones who controlled it."  
  
"Very well Commander. Let's salvage the ship, and mark another one up for the home team. Have the Amemnon distribute the necessary spares, and get the Potenton underway. I will need a crew to guide the ship, and do you have anyone in mind that you think would do a good job?" Captain Morgan said the last with a slight smile on his face, and Commander Verrin gasped slightly as she realized what he was asking.  
  
"I respectfully volunteer for the job sir."  
  
"Good. I expect you'll enjoy the thrill of commanding your own ship. Have the races present transferred to the Amemnon and the Excellon as necessary, and proceed over to your new command. It will be temporary of course, as I'll need you back here, but I think that the time you are in command will be memorable. Is there anything else?"  
  
"Nothing yet. I'll call you when we are ready to go to warp."  
  
"Captain out."  
  
*  
  
It took the Engineering crew three hours to get the warp core back on-line, and the impulse engines were only capable of making gross maneuvers, but the Potenton was finally able to go. Several beings on board had even volunteered to help the engineers, once the translator had told them about the key difference between the old controllers and the Federation. Commander Verrin had kept it on board as they cruised along with the Excellon, as the crew quarters were set up for the different species, and changing them would have required several days of work.  
  
"So, how did you get into this situation?" Commander Verrin was talking with the translator creature, trying to find out more. A recorder was running, for the benefit of anyone who wanted to review the conversation.  
  
"Was born into this life, was. Have been doing translating for many years. Know many languages, and learn new ones quickly. The slavers used me to translate between the races on board their ships. Was not able to get much of their language, as they did not talk much around me. But other races were talked around, and listened to other races I did. But still not much of their language known."  
  
"You said other ships. How many other ships?"  
  
"Ved not know. Ved not my name, is name used by slavers. Possibly their word for translator, as others named similarly. But Ved best name to use, as have forgotten real name.  
  
"Ships look the same on end of whip. Not recommended looking around. Slavers also hungry for fresh meat. Not good to look around."  
  
"You mean the 'slavers' would kill one of you and eat you?"  
  
"Not kill me, as was too good with languages. But others, yes, when they feel nice, they kill. Else they cook alive one that disobeyed."  
  
"But each ship has sense of different crew. I count have been on ten ships. One ship no go anywhere, maybe stopped ship, you word is station? That was ship on before this one."  
  
Commander Verrin reeled at the thought. 'Somewhere out there is a base that these slavers operate from. We need to find it and take it out.' "So, how did the other races get captured?"  
  
"Many like you, open world, no guns, slavers come in and take beings. They shove beings into cargo hold, and go away with beings in ship. Or they take ships and smaller ships. Your word, shuttles?"  
  
"What were some of the other ships like? Did they have many on board?"  
  
"This ship, not many. Station, many many. Ship on before that, many. Most were of slaver race, but a few were of other races. Station, lots of slavers, with a few from your race. Very big place, big cargo hold. This ship in the cargo hold, fit it did."  
  
Commander Verrin was thinking quickly now. Although Ved was not capable of giving the exact numbers, there were probably others who could. "Ved, would you be willing to help me talk to others on board?"  
  
"No problem. Is what Ved did before. Ved no do much, but Ved translate. Whenever translator needed, Ved there."  
  
"Good." With that, Commander Verrin began calling in the members of the crew, and discussing with them the different sights that they had seen, and also their histories and their culture. The portable recorder had filled up its memory during one interview, and Commander Verrin had simply gotten another one out. She had figured that there would be a lot of information, and she didn't want to lose any because a recorder ran out of memory.  
  
After ten hours of interviews, Commander Verrin was tired, but she made herself go back over the recorders, searching for anything she had not heard originally, or had missed.  
  
'There is a large base out there, with the other two freighters acting as roving pirates. The crafts that started the station though, are fairly strong, and mount at least two of the larger energy cannon that hurt us so bad the last time. There are several freighters that seem similar in design to the original pirate ships; I'd better give the original pirate ships a designation. Pirate Alpha is simple, and works. The freighters used by the pirates, call them Supply Alphas, and for the converted captured freighters, Traitor Alpha for the one with the small weapons, and Traitor beta for the one with the large weapon. Figure Traitor Charlie for one that has two of the large weapon. The shuttles that were captured, call those Turncoat Alphas.  
  
'So what we are looking at here is at least two Pirate Alphas, each with three of those large ion weapons, at worst case two Traitor Charlies, unknown Supply Alphas and ten Turncoat Alphas. Thank goodness we found five more in the hold of this ship. They are in mint condition, so we've got a small armada of them. The food supplies on here for the ex-slaves are okay, but we're checking with them to see if they can also eat Federation food. If not, we'll see if we can get a special job running on Sherrizin 12.' Turning back to her computer, Commander Verrin began composing her report to Captain Morgan, and attaching the data from the interviews so he could look over it himself.  
  
The next day, Commander Verrin began her interviews with the human crew, with a request to the engine room to do something about the temperature. The temperature was fluctuating wildly, rising to one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit, and dropping to forty degrees Fahrenheit. The engineering team replied that they were working on it, but not to hope for anything. As a result, Commander Verrin was thoroughly uncomfortable during all the interviews, and it was good for her that the recorder was on, as it caught key information that she would have missed.  
  
Thanks to the humans that she had interviewed, she had learned much about the slavers. The main base that was used could fit several ships inside its cargo holds, and enclose them. They were not able to see the outside, but any space station would be easy to spot. There were some defenses there too, but according to all the reports she had received, they were only more ion guns, with nothing resembling any sort of shield or armor? They weren't even using point defense! But that made sense, from the slaver's point of view, as they were designed to deal with weapons they knew about, and armor and point defense weren't much good against ion weapons, but without shields, the station would be getting clobbered with micrometeorites.  
  
But she figured that they would have something for that, and assumed that it would be some sort of low-level shield. That way, she was covering her bets on what might be waiting there.  
  
She laughed out loud at that. Here she was, second in command of a single warship, and already thinking about how to take out a space station! Turning back to her work, she continued looking over the technology, and attempting to figure out how many of the slavers lived on the station and the Pirate Alphas. Judging from the reports, there were roughly one hundred of the slavers on a Pirate Alpha, and several thousand on a station. There also appeared to be fresh meat on the station, though the people were not sure if that was from other slaves being killed or from a planet that they hunted on. It was not pre-packaged, as the meat was fresh, and often bloody.  
  
*  
  
Captain Morgan was also going through similar activities, as he was getting reports from the computer team assigned to crack the enemy's computers. They were attempting to use similar sensors and other interfaces as the Potenton did, in an attempt to figure out how the computer stored and retrieved data. They were having a little luck, and were slowly working on the specific component that encrypted everything between the memory core and the input and output devices.  
  
The rest of the crew was feeling better too, as they had rescued half the ships, but more importantly, they had rescued some of the people that had been held captive as well. The entire crew was in good spirits, and even during the three general quarters drills, they kept their confident attitudes going. Captain Morgan was even feeling the mood slightly, even with the reports from engineering about the power of the weapon they had picked up.  
  
For the larger weapon mounted on the Potenton was far more than it seemed. The Potenton had fired it at a slow rate, but that rate it seemed had been dictated by the need to power it up between shots, not the actual cooling and firing time. If more power was provided, the weapon could be fired every three seconds, or even higher if it was allowed to overheat. The weapon also was not a scratch-built one similar to the smaller ones placed on the shuttles. It had been a full-capability weapon, with every part designed for its location, and no scratch-built parts on it.  
  
In short, there was someone out there building these weapons, for some purpose that only they knew. 


	3. Slavers!

Captain Morgan: Slavers!  
  
The Excellon and its fellow vessels created quite a stir when they arrived at the colony of Ventradin three. All the colonists there had known was that the Excellon would be escorting a single freighter; instead they had shown up with a second shot up freighter with them. The Ventradin colony couldn't do much, as the planet was a giant ocean, except for a few islands scattered around the planet. Hurricanes were a way of life for the colonists, as hurricanes that could orbit the planet twice before reaching landfall were nightmares to think about. The upper portion of the colony was heavily armored, and the colonists there mainly lived underground. Fishing was a way of life, and a small engineering team was working on a way to regulate the hurricanes.  
  
There was a hurricane going on over one of the upper portions of outpost three, but the colonists had developed air and underwater transports to an art. There was no problem involved in simply landing at another outpost and traveling in the air to near outpost three, then ducking underwater to arrive at the one of the colonies. Virtually every colonist was trained in how to operate a submersible, and many besides the pilots were trained how to operate the multi-environment craft that were used.  
  
As the Excellon watched for any predators from space, the Amemnon began transferring cargo from the module to the colony below, and receiving the processed food from there. The colony dealt mainly with seafood, and other marine food production. Vast mats had been set up to encourage shellfish growth, and large areas were bubble tanks, designed to keep schools of fish one location by using bubbles as walls. There were larger predators in the sea, and the local version of the giant squid was always watched out for. The multi-environment craft could easily get away from it by going from water to the air, but the submersibles had only their speed and the defense web near the colonies to stay safe.  
  
Some people had equipped their submersible with various forms of harpoons and explosive torpedoes to hunt the giant squids, and a few people had been lucky enough to succeed. Unfortunately, the meat from a giant squid only appealed to a few people, so there wasn't that much hunting going on. Second, the colony administrator had stripped those who were caught hunting of their license to pilot any craft. There was the added disincentive too, of the fact that the giant squid was in its element, and five ships had been lost hunting the two animals.  
  
Several of the beings that had been used as slaves started looking at the windows suddenly. Asking Ved to translate, Commander Verrin found out that their race came from a similar type of world, and they would like to go down to the planet. After quickly talking to Captain Morgan she got together with the shuttles traveling to the planet, and was able to have the entire group on the planet. They knew that they would only have a short amount of time, so the beings took the opportunity to swim in the water. Seeing how much fun that group was having, Commander Verrin got permission from Captain Morgan to have the entire group of slaves down to the planet, and give them a chance to relax.  
  
That night while on the planet, the freed beings were given a very wonderful meal, as several of the creatures and plants grown underwater agreed with their body's chemistry. There was a wide variety of foods available, giving every species something to try that they would enjoy. There were a couple spear fishing expeditions that occurred and the one race that lived in water joined in, and brought back a record kill.  
  
But even the good times had to come to an end, and all the crews and ex-slaves began returning to the ships, to get their little convoy underway again. The beings who had crewed the Potenton before were fairly skilled in creating outfits, and were preparing a surprise for the Excellon's crew. Several of them had been asking to become part of the crew as official members, but were slightly disappointed when they were told that they would have to go through Starfleet Academy. Commander Verrin began putting together a set of training manuals for them to study with though, so that if they passed the ship-approved exams, they could be shipped off to Starfleet. Ved helped in this endeavor, as he was able to translate the material to the different languages used, and was also taking the time to create a translator program for between the various languages and Starfleet standard.  
  
When the manuals were complete, the beings threw themselves into the manuals, devoting all their time to learning the material within. They knew that only Starfleet was their protection against becoming slaves again, and they wanted to do what they could to prevent that happening to anyone else. The species that was good in water was unusually skilled in three-dimensional combat, and learned it easily, while the two other races had members that were highly skilled in physics, and the other race was skilled in memorization.  
  
Commander Verrin had finally managed to get the names of the three races as well. The water planet beings were called Tuilasin, and the other two races came from planets similar to Earth climate. The Secongo were highly skilled in physics, while the Veichlongosemtifutu were skilled in memorization. They understood that other races were not as skilled as they were in memorization, so they had been shortening their names to four syllables, so that others could easily say them. They had realized that long names took time to repeat in combat, and had no trouble knowing their new names now. There were individual variations in the three species, as one Tuilasin might be good in memorization, while a Secongo might now know as much about physics, but was skilled with machines, while a Veich might be among the deadlier in hand to hand combat.  
  
Captain Morgan was getting concerned these days though, for the Excellon was down to half its fuel supply. Since it took several months for a freighter to arrive, he knew that his ship would be down to one month's fuel left when it arrived. Power-saving measures were not being used though, because the main power-saving measure was to shut down the warp drive and subspace scanners. Given that there were hostile vessels out there that was not a good idea.  
  
But he refused to let that worry him now, and he composed a message to be sent back to starbase 121 that would be sent when he arrived at the next colony. It would be a week before they arrived, so he was able to complete it easily. He heard about what Commander Verrin was doing, and smiled. She was probably enjoying herself over there, with the entire ship under her control, and being able to enjoy every second of it.  
  
Commander Verrin would have disagreed with Captain Morgan at that moment. One of the gravity networks had developed a surge phenomenon, and every few seconds the gravity would suddenly vary to a new value. This value ranged from one third a G, to up to two and a half times normal gravity. She had finally had enough of it, and had ordered the main gravity net shut off while the engineers figured out the problem. Although everybody had been floating around weightless for several hours, the engineers had been able to fix the problem with the power relays, and the gravity was slowly turned back up to one tenth gravity. This was done to allow objects to slowly fall to the deck, instead of having everyone land hard from a sudden restoration.  
  
But the engineers were slowly working around the problems, and finding all the old equipment left behind by the slavers. They were replacing it with working, effective components as they traced their way through the wings and parts of the Potenton. As each component was removed, it was analyzed by the combined engineering teams, and a suitable replacement was found. Several components were found that seemed to combine several functions in them, and they were saved for the engineering teams to look over when they had a chance. New technological ideas might come out of those components, and the engineers on board were known for their curiosity. The fire-control circuits for the large energy cannon were also analyzed, and gone over for any possible loopholes in the circuitry.  
  
When they reached the next stop, the colony of Tentarin five welcomed them. The colony had been hearing about the missing ships, and had been building new sensors to help. They hadn't sent the new sensors out yet, as they had feared that the mysterious raiders would simply capture the sensors initially, and after that because no shuttles had ever come. But when the Excellon had arrived, the colonists were very happy to use the ship as their new guinea pig.  
  
Captain Morgan put a stop to that immediately. He didn't want his ship changed too much, so he had the colonists transport up a working model of their new sensors, along with full information on how it was put together and standard operating limits. The new technology from the Potenton caused the greatest stir, and the Starfleet security on-base had to stop a small riot as the local mad scientist engineers nearly tore each other apart trying to get to the pieces to analyze them. But after the engineers and scientists on the base began working together, they said they would have an initial report ready in a few hours. New components were quickly made by the younger engineers working there, and the Potenton was soon equipped with enough spare components to completely rebuild its electronics.  
  
When the report was given, Captain Morgan felt a new respect for the slavers. The circuitry was designed to withstand repeated blows from heavy physical and electric shocks and keep on working. The main reason his ship had done as well as it had during the first two battles was because the Federation equipment hadn't been able to handle the stress. These components were tough, and though they had failed, it had been the Federation hardware that had failed first. Asking the teams here to see what they could do to improve Federation technology, he left them in a state of excitement as they began tossing out theories on how to improve the computer systems.  
  
Finding a second group, he gave them the information on the slaver's ion weapon, and began asking them how the shields could be better set up to defend against the energy surges. The answer surprised him, as it was similar to what he had said; use the conductive mesh to absorb what energy gets through the shields. When one of the scientists questioned about what to do with the excess energy resulting from the dispersion, an engineer spoke up and said that the power from the battery could be channeled to a laser system, and the laser could be used to fight off the slaver ships.  
  
Several other engineers were startled by the idea, but the idea suddenly came into focus for them, and they began getting to work on the system. It eventually was designed to use a triple battery system. One battery would be charging, one being made ready to charge, and a charged battery being used to fire the laser. The system was eventually designed to be installed on a cargo module, with four lasers being used, and a power plant on board that could fire the lasers if the slavers weren't being kind enough to provide the power to do so. The shields were designed for the Amemnon also, and were set to be slightly "leaky". This way the shields would take some of the impact, but would mainly disperse the charge inside the shield, resulting in less impact in one location, but still delivering the charge to the mesh.  
  
Looking at the timetable for the construction, Captain Morgan asked them to send the modified plans to Starbase 121, and also asked them to send his report to the Starbase as well. In the meantime, Captain Morgan also asked them to begin research into a system that had more resistance to the surge effects from the ion weapons. The scientists said they would get on it, and Captain Morgan then turned to Captain Verrin, and asked her how the trip on the Potenton was.  
  
Commander Verrin looked at him in the eye and said, "You knew that it would be a rough ride, didn't you?"  
  
"I had my suspicions, but I take it was worse than I thought?"  
  
"Let me put it this way. The temperatures fluctuated wildly, the gravity net went out a couple times, and the lights strobed several times. It was a trip that I am not going to forget, that's for sure."  
  
"How did the other races do to help you during the time?"  
  
"The other three did a great job. They worked just as hard as any of the other crew members to get the ship repaired, and were learning all about the Federation in the meantime. I have to admit, we'd still be behind schedule if it wasn't for their efforts.  
  
"But the best help I have had so far is from Ved. He, at least I am referring to Ved as a he, is a perfect translator. He can learn any language it seems, and understand it in a very short time. I had him develop a translation book for the other races, and they are learning our language right now."  
  
"Sounds like you've got a good crew right now. How do you feel about knowing that you'll have to eventually leave that ship and return to the Excellon?"  
  
"Right now, I'd do anything for a decent shower. The shower systems on board that ship are communal, and the only temperature control is either searing hot or freezing cold. By standing between two nozzles, and aiming them at me, it was tolerable, but I plan on taking a nice shower today. Not only that, but view screens were in there, and the computer was set up to automatically route the caller to wherever the recipient was. I had to have the bridge put a limit on the calls for people, because otherwise I would have been paged in the shower.  
  
"Quit laughing!"  
  
Captain Morgan was chuckling at the thought of his confidant XO suddenly being interrupted, and even more at what the person calling must have thought when the image appeared. "Sorry about that, I was imagining what the person on the other end was thinking. Why didn't you just put a towel over the screen?"  
  
"There was no place to hang it. Also, the engineering teams were busy trying to keep the engines running, and there were not enough extra hands for a job like that."  
  
"Did you enjoy your chance to command the ship though?"  
  
"I suppose so, yes. I did enjoy the chance to be in charge of the ship, even with all the problems. Even though I was responsible for everything that happened, knowing that everything would eventually be my responsibility, I enjoyed the fact that I could do anything, with my conscience as the only authority I had to answer to."  
  
"And Starfleet."  
  
"And Starfleet."  
  
Captain Morgan smiled, realizing that Commander Verrin had appreciated the fact that a Captain could indulge in almost any whim, and she had realized that a conscience was the best friend.  
  
"Is there anything else Commander?"  
  
"Nothing at all Captain."  
  
"Very well then, feel free to return to your ship."  
  
As Commander Verrin walked out the door, Captain Morgan suddenly said, "Commander."  
  
"Yes Captain?"  
  
"Call me Paul."  
  
"Susan." With that brief interchange, they now felt more comfortable with each other, and Susan Verrin smiled inwardly as she left the room. 'Yes!'  
  
*  
  
The next day, the convoy left the planet's orbit, and proceeded into warp towards their next stop. With the new parts, the engineering team on the Potenton was able to finish the repairs and replacements, bringing the Potenton back to its normal operation. Special compensation had been necessary for the different races, so the crew quarters were slightly different, but as for normal operations, the different species found ways to adapt to human norms in temperature and pressure. The Tuilasin simply brought a water bottle around with them to stay hydrated, and the other races made do with other similar implements.  
  
Nothing important happened on the rest of their trip, except for the three new races causing a stir on each of the colonies as they went down to look around. There had been no fear of them causing a medical problem, because they had been living around humans for several months, and the humans had checked out fine on their medical scans. The medic on the Potenton had transferred the blood samples from each of the different beings to the Excellon, where the doctor had looked at them and pronounced them safe to interact with humans. The samples allowed the doctor to see what the effects of various compounds were, allowing her to see if various foods were poisonous to the four types of races. There had been a couple foods that could not be eaten, but on the whole, the four races were able to get their full nutrition from the foods on board the Potenton.  
  
When they arrived back at Starbase 121, several members of the three races had asked to take the tests for Starfleet Academy admission. The tests would be administered at the base, and the results would be analyzed afterwards. Surprising Captain Morgan though, was the small construction yard in orbit. He quickly got a communications line open to Commander Wilson, and began talking.  
  
"Commander, this is Captain Morgan. What is that in orbit?"  
  
"Captain, how do you like my new toy? It's a small antimatter production plant. When complete it will be able to provide enough antimatter for your ship. There are also several antimatter pods orbiting the fourth planet, and I can detail several shuttles to help you in loading them aboard your ship. I ordered a freighter to perform a resupply of antimatter the last time you were here, and also asked the supply department to send an antimatter plant as well. They couldn't get all the components on board, so I just had them send the components that couldn't be built here.  
  
"The ship arrived two weeks ago, and we've been building it the entire time. No antimatter is being produced, because all the pods here are full, and we haven't had a chance to build any. If you're willing, we can change out the pods, and see how well the plant works."  
  
"Sounds like a great plan. I'll send the message to my chief engineer, and we'll get started on refueling. Did you send my report on to Starfleet Command?"  
  
"Sure did, and I expect they are going crazy about what happened out here. You found a total of four new races, and possible a fifth if the slavers are a different race. Not only that, but you managed to recapture two of the freighters used, ten of the shuttles, and found out about a totally new weapon. They're probably going into shock right now over the report.  
  
"For fueling, how does tomorrow sound? I can get a few shuttles and tow ropes together, and two shuttles can string a tow rope between them to bring one antimatter pod at a time. If the containment fails, the shuttles can disconnect the rope, and the pod will detonate. With the rope between them, the shuttles won't be burning it with their impulse exhaust."  
  
"Sounds good. The Excellon's needed an antimatter meal for a few months, and this sounds like the perfect opportunity to eat. Is there anything else that I should know about?"  
  
"Nothing else Captain."  
  
"Excellon out."  
  
Captain Morgan later got together with Lieutenant Commander Faithen, and told him the news about the anti-matter fueling. He got out the necessary materials, and got his engineering team together. Thanks to the starbase, there had been several new recruits there, and the various departments had been brought back up to normal levels. The new people were of the same grade as the original crew, i.e. the ones Starfleet didn't want to have the people back home knowing about, but they were slotted into the rest of the crew without much disruption.  
  
The anti-matter fueling was scheduled for the next day, and Captain Morgan got together with the Amemnon and the Potenton's crew. He asked them for a report on consumables needed to keep operating, and other material needs. Commander Verrin and Lieutenant Gordon had prepared a report, and were talking to him now. Commander Wilson was there by communications link as well, to see if he needed to have his base do anything.  
  
"Both of our ships are getting a little low on deuterium fuel. Can the base provide us with more, along with some tritium reserves?"  
  
"We have over fifty tons of deuterium stored here. There is also one ton of tritium stored here as well, so refueling your ships should be no problem. However, do you really need to take both ships back out again? The colonies produce a small enough amount that only one module freighter is needed."  
  
Commander Verrin and Lieutenant Gordon looked at each other in that regard. Both of them had gotten used to being in charge of a ship and neither wanted to give up that privilege. Lieutenant Gordon knew that her ship was in good shape, but she also knew that rank had its privileges, and figured that she was going to lose her command.  
  
Captain Morgan broke the tie. "The Potenton will stay here, but Commander Verrin will transfer over and take command of the Amemnon. Lieutenant, I know you've grown attached, but it's time for you to return to the Excellon."  
  
Command Verrin then raised an important point. "Captain, what about the different races on board the Potenton? What will be done with them?"  
  
Commander Wilson was able to answer that. "The starbase here can handle most of them, as long as we can provide the right kind of food. I've gone over your doctor's list of foods to avoid, and I am sure that we can provide the right kinds for everyone."  
  
"Commander, how did they do on the Starfleet exams?"  
  
"Captain, not many of them passed the test. This could be due to the fact that they only had one month to prepare, and that most of the material on the test requires them to think from a human's perspective. I have an exact breakdown of the scores here if you want. According to the average scores of them all, they were good in engineering skills and repairing, and not so good in moral issues. Five of the group of forty three passed, and they are eligible to enter Starfleet Academy. But it will take some time to get the full paperwork in order, to allow a new species to attend the Academy, and if I might be so bold, I'd like to have them here to help me. A couple of the ones who passed have scores that are what I would normally expect from a second or third-year cadet."  
  
"The Excellon could use a couple as well. Their presence will help us remember what we're looking for out here. How about if we give the ones who passed the exam a choice and the remaining will be assigned on an as-needed basis?"  
  
"Sounds good Captain."  
  
With that decided, the meeting broke up, and Lieutenant Gordon began moving her stuff back to the Excellon, while Commander Verrin began transferring her stuff to the Amemnon. The Amemnon's crew was a little disappointed, as they couldn't call their Captain 'Batgirl' anymore. Lieutenant Gordon had been puzzled by the reference at first, but after she had looked it up, she had shaken her head. True, she was good with gadgets and figuring stuff out, but the red hair had completed the nickname. Fortunately, not many people knew that her first name really was Barbara, and she was determined that nobody would find that out.  
  
The shuttles assigned to the Amemnon performed the trip to the orbiting fuel plant, and managed to refuel the Amemnon in a matter of hours, after Commander Verrin had arrived. The Excellon was operating with zero radiated energy, and all external electronic components in the aft half of the ship were dialed down to minimum levels, or off.  
  
Antimatter was a delicate beast, and nobody wanted to anger it. They knew that there was no real safe way to handle antimatter, and as each pod was carefully moved into place, nobody was taking it easy. Each pod was fully drained of antimatter by the Excellon's power system and the antimatter was transferred to another pod, then the empty pod was jettisoned into space. A shuttle caught it, and attached the pod to itself. Taking the pod into a higher orbit, the shuttle was responsible for making sure that the pods didn't endanger anyone as they orbited the planet.  
  
That was the easy part. Dealing with full antimatter pods was a far more sensitive job. The containment fields were working, and the pods were in zero gravity, but the antimatter inside each pod still had its inertia. The antimatter was kept in place with gravity fields, using gentle nudges to keep the antimatter from developing any sort of momentum. After all, if the antimatter contacted the container walls, it would not be healthy for anyone nearby.  
  
Each pod was slowly guided into position by the shuttle, and as the electromagnets anchored the pod to the ship, the gas tubes were rewarmed. To keep the gas tubes from continuously pushing the pod away from the ship, the gas inside them was chilled down to fifty degrees Kelvin, causing the gas to shrink down to less than one fifth its normal volume. This resulted in the rods being short enough to allow the antimatter pod to contact the electromagnet, and after being securely attached, the gas would be slowly rewarmed to resume its pressure.  
  
Each person operating near the pods carried a small hand torch, in case a pod started to fail, and the gas needed to be rewarmed quickly. The torch was a small oxygen and gas torch, and could actually provide a flame in space. The reason to use the gas torch, instead of a laser or other electrical heating system, was that the gas system would provide the heat, without providing any electricity to interfere with the tank's containment.  
  
The fueling was completed in five hours, and when the final hatch was closed and the equipment put away and safed, there was a general sigh of relief. Captain Morgan looked on as the antimatter factory got started, and received a communication from Commander Wilson.  
  
"We have antimatter! The fusion plant is providing the power, and the antimatter collector is working properly. You'll now be able to refuel your ship here, so there's no need to worry about making sure there is an antimatter freighter on schedule. Besides, there are still over sixty full pods remaining after your fueling, so even if this plant goes off-line, you can still get fuel."  
  
"Are you going to be okay as far as collecting hydrogen goes?"  
  
"No problem Captain. The hydrogen collectors weren't being fully used, so I'm bringing it to normal operating level. There's enough hydrogen being collected to supply two antimatter factories like that, along with being able to collect enough hydrogen so we can keep eight module freighters full of deuterium. The collector was simply overpowered compared to what we needed here, and it is working perfectly."  
  
"Sounds like you'll be busy then. Have fun with your new toys."  
  
"Who knows what I'll have here next time Captain. See you in a few weeks, and good luck."  
  
"Excellon out." Captain Morgan smiled as he leaned back in his chair, and sighed. 'Only in the Federation would they be so casual with a valuable antimatter plant like that and demand exact records of what we spend our credits on. Sheesh.' Excellon and the Amemnon moved back out, ready to complete the next round of cargo transfers.  
  
*  
  
During the next few weeks, the data from the shuttle records was examined, looking for any patterns. There had been a little data from each shuttle, mainly dealing with where it was in space at all times. Each shuttle's record was the same; it was cruising along in subspace, it would come out of warp, and then it would record a few seconds of wild maneuvering, then the electronics would be knocked out. When the computer was brought back on-line, the shuttle would be heading in a new direction, and would stop soon after.  
  
The directions the shuttles went in were random, and an engineer suggested that what was happening was that the shuttle was being flown into the boat bay of the ship that had captured it. It seemed to make sense, as the shuttle's log would always record the shutdown of the main systems a few seconds after the shuttle stopped accelerating and decelerating. So there was no way to trace where the shuttles went, in an attempt to find the slavers' base. The data on the Potenton was still being gone over, both on the Excellon and at Starbase 121, but there was no result from that yet.  
  
For those who had passed the Starfleet exam, all five of them had wanted to go back into space. The basic reason given was that they wanted to be on a ship that could survive if they got into a fight, and the Excellon was the only one that had done so, not once, but twice. For the others that hadn't passed the test, half of them were on board the Amemnon and the rest were back at Starbase 121. The choices had gone in order of score result, with the higher scoring ones choosing their assignment first from what was available.  
  
Ved was one of the ones that had chosen to go with the Excellon. He had been selected to go with the Amemnon because he could speak any language, and if they came across any new races, he could translate for them. In the meantime, Ved was having fun learning the new languages that the Excellon had on file. He considered it a fun activity, and felt he was learning new things about humans by learning their language.  
  
When Captain Morgan talked to him about that, Ved replied, "When one cannot understand the other, one cannot ever be truly at peace. Ved and Ved's people know this. To prevent misunderstanding over a minor thing, learn about the other.  
  
"But when slavers come, we soon understood, understood that there would be no peace among equals."  
  
"What can you tell about the slavers, from their language?"  
  
"Slavers use war language. Is language made for telling of battles, of victory, and of glory. No easy way to tell of defeat, or losses. Slavers seem as warriors, wanting to fight and conquer."  
  
"Why would they take slaves then?"  
  
"Ved not know exactly. Just guesses. Slavers are warriors, work beneath them. When conquer others, get victory, and slaves to do work. As you say, 'two for one'?"  
  
Captain Morgan thanked Ved for his insight, and went on thinking. 'So these slavers want mainly to conquer others, for glory? Perhaps when they lose, they are shamed in some way. That fits with when they self-destructed their reactor, and their suits on the ground. It also means that whoever is in charge of the slaving in this area has had two major losses, with the freighters. This means that they will probably want revenge.'  
  
His thoughts kept him company on the way to the next colony.  
  
*  
  
After arriving at the next colony, Captain Morgan watched as the shuttles did their three-dimensional dance, transferring supplies to and from the colony. Captain Morgan and the colony's administrator were talking over a communications link, and were relaxing on their respective ends, as their subordinates were well able to handle a simple cargo transfer.  
  
"Administrator, is your colony doing well these days?"  
  
"Much better since you started doing the freighter runs Captain. For a while there we thought the starbase had forgotten about us, until we started picking up communications about how none of the standard shipments were getting through to or from anyone. That's when we started getting worried, as even though we can grow our own food here in our hydroponics, we would still need certain minerals and vitamins that we weren't able to grow here. I'll bet Sherrizin 12 had a fairly easy time of it though. Plenty of food, lots of sunlight, and no need to worry about oxygen. Just worrying about a plant choking you in the night to get to your breath."  
  
"They were doing okay. Sweating while waiting for when the next solar flare occurred, but once we arrived, they were getting back on their feet."  
  
"Um Captain, if I may ask, about how long until your little group returns with the next load?"  
  
"We'll probably be back roughly every four months. That's why we're unloading such a large amount this time. These supplies should help you to get through the next four months until the next freighter shipment.  
  
"If I may ask Administrator, how does this compare with before the raids started?"  
  
"Well Captain, what we would do before is sending the request to the starbase, but we would also talk with the other colonies here to see if they had the materials we needed. If they did, we would send a shuttle over, along with some goods that they needed from us, and we would swap."  
  
"But aren't those sort of barters illegal under Federation law?"  
  
"Captain, I knew that every time I did something like that. But I also knew that it took three to four months to get the items we needed from the Federation. As a result, a sort of informal barter is set up between us. Nobody is profiting off it, which is the most important thing. Shuttle pilots get more practice time, and we get to exchange people between colonies. All the population transfers are logged of course, so we know where everyone is, so except for the barter, everything is legal."  
  
"How do you determine if someone can be trusted in something like this? I mean, what's to keep me from turning you over to the Federation authorities?"  
  
"Two things Captain. One, we don't initiate the bartering with a new Administrator. He or she must come to us first, and we tell them that the procedure is illegal. Once we have them admitting that they know that, then and only then do we start the process."  
  
"So you only let others start the process. What if an Administrator refuses to do so and loyally continues to wait for the Federation to supply the material?"  
  
"We do nothing. We will only work with the authorized leader of a colony. Most administrators out here care more for keeping their colony alive for Federation politics actually. There are those who will follow the letter of the law absolutely though, and we do nothing about them. That is another colony. Of course, the local population will quickly change the leader, and we can often deal with the replacement. So we only do the bartering with someone who contacts us first."  
  
"You mentioned two reasons about why I wouldn't turn it you over to the Federation Judicial branch. The first is that each Administrator here would have to be turned in. What is the second?"  
  
"Well Captain, according to the articles of the Federation, if a military officer removes an Administrator of command, the officer then has to step in as acting Administrator until the local population or the Federation send a replacement. And I don't think you want to deal with all the paperwork of running a single colony, not to mention every single colony out here. But if you wanted to, I wouldn't mind getting eight hours of sleep in a day for a change." The last was said with a grin on the administrator's face, as he had already figured out the Captain's answer.  
  
"You're right, in that regards. However, I want to make sure that there is no evidence of this in any database that the Federation Judicial Branch could find. After all, if they discover that there is a barter system at work out here, they will remove you, and have me and my ship back to Starfleet headquarters so fast you won't believe it."  
  
"Captain, I assure you, there is no way for them to find any evidence. We've had them come out here before, and they have found nothing each time."  
  
Captain Morgan and the Administrator parted ways, each alone in their thoughts; one wondering how much was actually going on out here, and the other thinking that he had found a new ally. Captain Morgan was busy wondering exactly how much was done out here that actually obeyed Federation law, while the Administrator was busy figuring out in his head exactly what supplies a Federation warship would want, and how to provide it. He knew that his fellow administrators were doing the same thing, so he needed to provide something here, and trade for other goods using it.  
  
Returning to his ship, Captain Morgan looked over the various status reports from the divisions on his ship. The crew of a Federation starship knew that they would be on board for months, if not years, and they were willing to live with that. Everyone knew that if you joined Starfleet, you were signing up for a six year tour, and except for the last few months, you would be in some distant corner of the Federation. During the last few months, the Federation made a special compensation. The crewmember would specify where they wanted to be when they left the Federation. This could be any colony, planet, or other location, and the Federation would transfer you to that location so you would be there when you left. Since the distances were so vast, and warp speeds so slow, the time at the end was used to transfer the person to a freighter, and the person would be a crewmember on that freighter until it reached the person's destination. With freighters going to each planet in the Federation, it was often a simple matter to schedule the appropriate changeovers when the freighters met, and the crewmember would be at the colony by the time the term of service was over.  
  
There were no people on board his ship currently coming up on their end of service, but Captain Morgan noticed that there would be one large batch of them leaving in a year. He would have to send the appropriate requests to Federation personnel department for replacements soon so their replacements would arrive in time for the retirees to be able to leave. Seeing which departments they worked in, he began typing out a memo to Starfleet headquarters for replacements in the selected areas and numbers for each. He knew what types of people Starfleet would send him, but was determined to do the best he could with what he was given. What Starfleet didn't realize, was that the people sent to him were also free-thinkers, and those were the kind of people he wanted.  
  
*  
  
On the way to their next colony, a general quarters drill was held, and the sensors team reacted strangely. Instead of reacting to the false images of ships attacking, the sensor team called out, "Contact bearing 342 by 316, faint return. Looks small, smaller than a shuttle."  
  
"That's not what the sensors are supposed to see during this drill."  
  
"Sir, this is an actual contact."  
  
Captain Morgan looked at the screen, and got on the comm with the Amemnon. "Amemnon, we're adjusting course for a new contact. Stay behind us in case this is a trap."  
  
Turning back to the helmsman, he said, "Set a course to that contact, same speed."  
  
The Excellon turned towards the faint contact, and within thirty minutes, the Excellon was well within range to identify it. "Sir, it's a life pod, looks like its power system is dead. There is no response from our hail and no IFF response as well."  
  
"Captain, recommend we use a shuttle to investigate."  
  
"Good thinking Commander, do it."  
  
Commander Verrin turned to her own communications, and ordered that one of the armed shuttles and an unarmed shuttle be prepped for launch. Another communication and a security team was prepping for recovery of a life pod, and getting their gear together for outer space activity.  
  
Five minutes later, Commander Verrin turned to Captain Morgan and said, "Sir, the security team is ready, and their shuttle is ready to launch. I also had an armed shuttle prepped as well, in case the life pod turns out to be hostile."  
  
"Proceed Commander."  
  
The two shuttles launched from the Excellon, the armed shuttle taking up a position to the left of the Excellon, but aimed at the life pod. This way, if the life pod was hostile, the shuttle could fire into the pod's path, trying to disable it, while if the Excellon felt threatened, the lasers would not have to go through the shuttle to hit the life pod. The unarmed shuttle proceeded above the line between the Excellon and the shuttle, also trying to stay out of any possible line of fire. But the life pod made no moves the entire time, and the entire crew was now more curious than suspicious.  
  
When the security team in the unarmed shuttle arrived, they began a standard sweep. The modules that had been missing from the last escape pod were in place on this one, but it seemed as though the entire battery system was literally dead. There was no sign of life inside the pod, and there was no sign of explosives. With the latter consideration, Captain Morgan gave the team approval to bring it back to the Excellon for further study.  
  
Watching through a camera receiving images from the boat bay, the entire ship got to watch as the life pod was brought on board. The security detail slowly took apart the exterior layers, and the first piece of information came in. "Captain, this life pod is from the Gervon. According to the onboard records, this life pod was damaged before the Gervon was captured, and was unable to be jettisoned. For some reason, the pieces on board weren't scavenged for anything else. We're opening the main hatch now."  
  
The tension on the ship seemed to rise, as the hatch was forced open. Without the on board power, the life pod?s hatch was designed to stay shut to protect the person inside. Several people had wondered about how the person inside was to get out, but Federation design teams had decided that making sure the door stayed shut to preserve air more important.  
  
The hatch opened up, and a person shoved a sensor inside, to get a reading on the air inside. The result from the probe was an atmosphere that seemed normal, with elevated amounts of ozone. The ozone was probably formed by the radiation in space impacting on the oxygen molecules and causing them to react.  
  
What was inside was more amazing. "Captain, we've got what looks like a memory module in here. This one looks like a low-capacity, long-life module. There still might be data on them, and I'd like to use a handheld unit to access them."  
  
Everyone on the bridge looked at each other in shock. Someone had deliberately put a data module into a life pod, and had considered that to be more important than putting a person in there! Captain Morgan let that thought occupy him for a second, then said, "Go ahead."  
  
The engineer on the team took out a handheld computer, disengaged the radio links to the Excellon to prevent any potential computer viruses access to the ship, and began to attach it to the first module. The handheld had the power needed, and the crewman slowly began to read what was stored.  
  
"Captain, this appears to be a record from one of the people on the Gervon. According to the file list, there are several still images, and video records here as well. There is one file that seems to be a readme file, and I'm accessing it first. My Gosh Captain, this is amazing. The person says that the images are video captures of stars outside the windows, hoping for whoever finds this to figure out where they are. The video files are records taken from several humans and other species who want to convey a message. Do you want me to transfer the data to a section of the main computer?"  
  
Captain Morgan thought like crazy now. 'This is what we need! With pictures of star charts, we can begin to cross-reference where they are in this sector, and find them. But whoever did this might have anticipated that we would want the data, so they could have trapped it with various sorts of viruses, Trojan horses, or other computer attacks.'  
  
"Load it into the computer, but only after you have taken level five precautions to prevent any sort of danger from those files." Level five precautions were the second most strict computer safeguards. When level five safeguards were in place, there were three firewalls between the data and any other computer programs. If any sort of unauthorized action was taken by the data without specific file requests by the main computer, the data would be deleted, and the computer would be shut down. The backup computer would be brought on-line, and the offending data would be gone over by hand line by line to determine exactly what caused the alert.  
  
No matter the results of the search, the computer would be rebooted, and all data loaded from read-only memory. In addition, whenever data was passed from the memory, it would be analyzed by a virus scanner, and a packet sniffer would be used to make sure that the data from that memory was only heading to the intended recipient, and no others. If either of those safeguards was tripped, the main computer would be shut down. The net result of this security was to triple the time required to access data, but all data that was passed over this sort of link was guaranteed to be free of any sort of hostile programs.  
  
The data was uploaded, and Captain Morgan began to call up the first star chart. The chart appeared on screen, and the computer began mapping various stars. The computer was assuming that the image was undistorted by the window or whatever it was looking through, so all it had to go on was the star images. The camera used to take the picture was also capable of infrared, so the data from that was also being factored in. What the computer was attempting to do was find a single star in the picture that was known, and work from there. Since there might be nebulae in the way, some of the brighter stars might not even be visible.  
  
Captain Morgan passed that processed data on to the main sensor computer, and looked over the first of the human video records. The screen showed a single person, standing in front of a wall, with several scratchings on it.  
  
". . .we've been held in this place for a week now. Whoever the captors are, they want to keep us alive, don't know what for. All I remember of the attack is that we dropped from warp, and suddenly the console in front of me exploded in sparks." Burns could be seen on the man's face and arms, and the way he was hunched to one side indicated grievous wounds that weren't seen. "Next thing I know is that several of the intruders suddenly came on board, and anyone that resisted was killed. When people hid behind a barrier and shot at them with our two hand lasers, they fired some sort of weapon, and their bodies were literally hurled back. The impact point was burnt badly, and the person died soon after. When someone tried to attack them in hand-to-hand, the other intruders seemed to make room for one of their own, and the person and the selected intruder were given room to duel. It didn't last long, as the intruder was wearing armor and was incredibly fast.  
  
"After that, the rest of us were herded into the module, except for a couple who were pulled out. It seemed that the intruders wanted to find out which of us could fly the freighter, and when they finally found one who was willing to cooperate, they threw us some food. It was bland, but seems to be keeping us alive so far.  
  
"Thank goodness Bob Durhall had his miniature camera, or we'd never have a chance to tell someone out there. When the memory module we hid is full, we'll try to launch it in a life pod so someone can find it. Ever since we've been here, anyone who has tried to defy these intruders has been beaten. Needless to say, not many of us are resisting them now.  
  
"As near as I can figure, we were at warp two when we dropped out, and we were three weeks and five days into our shipping route. After that, it was five days while in the module, and we've been here for a week. It seems as though the intruders grab a few of us at a time, and they are never seen again. I don't know what happens to them, and I'm afraid to find out. Oh no, they're coming. Turn off the camera, turn it off." Static came on after that.  
  
That was the end of that recording, and Captain Morgan went over the man's expression in his mind. 'The man was scared. But then again, he should be, considering what he's been through. But he was kind enough to give us the timing.' "Computer, show me a local sector map, with a line showing the Gervon's projected route."  
  
A holographic map illuminated itself in front of the main screen, and a light was illuminated showing the Gervon's route between the various planets. "Computer, show only the route the Gervon was on when she disappeared. Several of the lines were removed, leaving a single route displayed. "Computer, show the section of the route the Gervon would have been at during the twenty-sixth day of their route." A small section of the line was now being displayed.  
  
"Captain, that doesn't tell us anything about their location."  
  
"No, but it does give us a place to start. The maximum speed of the Gervon is warp two, so all we have to do is search that sphere, and we'll find the base. Computer, display a sphere with a radius equal to the distance traveled by a vessel traveling at warp two for five days. Slide the sphere along the section, and display the resulting volume."  
  
A light purple sphere appeared in the hologram, and slid along the segment. The resulting volume was displayed, and everyone knew that they were getting close. "Computer, how many star systems are contained within that volume?"  
  
"There are eight star systems within that volume."  
  
"Now all we have to do is search all eight of those systems, and we'll find our slavers" said Captain Morgan, with a grin on his face.  
  
The rest of the crew looked around at each other, and they began smiling in a way that was not Federation-approved or politically correct. For their smiles had nothing to do with peace between species; instead, their smiles were based on the idea that they were going to wipe out the vermin that had been attacking their people like this.  
  
"Commander Verrin, I want you to put together a team of people to go over all those messages, and see what sorts of useful goodies you can get out of them. What they say, what the interior layout of where they are looks like, details from the background, and stuff like that. We are going to be looking for their starbase, and I want to know as much about them as I can. After you're finished with that, I want you to try to send as many of those messages to the families of those who are still missing. Tell the families that Starfleet is doing everything in its power to rescue them."  
  
The next couple of days were hectic, as Captain Morgan began altering their route slightly, to allow them to scan two of the eight systems. Unfortunately, the scans were rushed, and all they got was nothing for their efforts. There were no artificial structures detected in orbit around any of the planets, and there was no sign of any ground bases. However, because their scans were rushed, a base could have been built deep underground, and they wouldn't have been able to find it.  
  
Arriving at the next colony, the dance of shuttles began again, transferring the supplies needed by the colony and the products for shipment to the starbase. Watching the shuttles move, Captain Morgan realized just how vulnerable the colonies out here were. They weren't allowed any sort of defenses, and the only ship out here that had weapons, officially, was his. There simply weren't the necessary resources to keep this sector safe.  
  
But he would have to do his best, as Starfleet command might decide that if he couldn't handle this sector, he didn't deserve to be in command. If that happened, based on the normal group of Federation captains, there would be nobody between these people and the slavers. And that was even worse than anything that might happen to him.  
  
*  
  
The remaining trip through the colonies and back to the starbase went quietly, leaving Captain Morgan alone with his thoughts. The only person who he could normally talk with, emotionally an equal, was Commander Verrin. But since she was on the Amemnon, she was not available, so Captain Morgan had to content himself with his thoughts. 'We are the only armed ship in this sector. We have to find the slaver's base. But if we go to find the slaver's base, we will be abandoning the other colonies, and the freighters that are needed to keep the colonies going. The other alternative, having the freighters tag along with us, is not a good one, because if the base's defenses are tough, we might have to leave quickly, and a freighter isn't accustomed to moving quickly.  
  
'So the only way to keep the colonies supplied is to either deposit a larger than usual amount of supplies at the colonies, or get another ship here.' "Computer, call up a list of Starfleet officers who are currently out of favor with Starfleet headquarters."  
  
"Insufficient data provided. Please elaborate 'out of favor'."  
  
"List all officers who have received failing marks on the section of their officer review titled 'Political Correctness'."  
  
"Processing. List complete. Eighty-seven officers found and are listed in alphabetical order."  
  
"Remove from that list all officers that are currently assigned to the Excellon."  
  
"Sixty-seven officers."  
  
"How many are of Captain rank?"  
  
"None are of Captain rank."  
  
"How many are higher than captain rank?"  
  
"Three."  
  
"List all the ones below Captain rank on this screen, in descending order of rank."  
  
A screen in front of Captain Morgan flashed into existence, with a list of officer names on it. 'The only way for me to find the base is if I can take the Excellon out by itself. But I wouldn't feel safe doing that unless there was another ship in the area. If I can pick a select crew that Starfleet wouldn't mind putting out here, I can get that back-up I need.'  
  
Captain Morgan began going through the records, selecting various officers for different jobs. Since there was only a commander there as the highest ranking officer, he would have to find one with good command ability. Once he had the crew assembled, he could contact the three admirals, and ask them to assign another ship out to his area. With the crew he had selected, and the admirals to assign him another warship, he could hold this sector against the current slaver raids. Unless they had some radically new technology besides their ion guns, then he could simply stand off from long range, and use his missiles to weaken them. After that, they could surrender or die, as they chose. He got to work on the project, as he wanted to have it finished by the time he was back at Starbase 121, for better communications with the admirals.  
  
By the time the Excellon and the Amemnon arrived back at Starbase 121, Captain Morgan was ready to deliver his proposed crew list. He had gone back in later, and added various enlisted personnel that had also done poorly in their 'Political Correctness' review, and he was satisfied with the result. If he could get another Vectron class warship out here, his chances of finding the slavers would more than double, as he could literally have his ship become a mobile unit, with no one ever knowing where it would be next.  
  
Surprisingly enough, there was a message waiting for him there, from Starfleet headquarters. Captain Morgan accepted the message, while letting Commander Verrin oversee the transfer of supplies from the Amemnon to Starbase 121, and the flow of needed materials from the starbase destined for the colonies. He saw that the message was for him only, and sat down in his room, setting the screen there to play the message.  
  
The standard security protocols were opened properly, and the message began. "Captain Morgan, this is Starfleet Command. We have received your report concerning the disappearing shuttles, and we congratulate you on recovering the Amemnon. We are currently reviewing all possible leads on the subject, and we believe an extremist faction in the Federation is responsible for these attacks. Attached to this message is a file with full data about the group. The data on the ion weapons has been analyzed, and we don't believe they are a threat, as your shields should be able to handle them easily.  
  
"We want you to try to contact them peacefully, and convince them to return to the Federation. After they have surrendered, take them into custody and return them to starbase 121. Contact us at that time, and we'll send a ship to pick them up and deliver them to a re-education facility.  
  
"Although we've had our differences in the past Captain Morgan, we at Starfleet Command think you're doing a good job. Keep up the loyal work, and we look forward to hearing that you've recovered the extremists.  
  
"This is Admiral Hunter at Starfleet Command signing off."  
  
The standard Federation symbol appeared at the end of the message, signaling the end of the transmission. Looking over the message, Captain Morgan saw the attachment, and downloaded it to the main computer. The direct download like that saved time on analyzing the data, as nothing harmful would be transmitted by Starfleet Command.  
  
While his actions were routine, his thinking wasn't. 'What the heck is wrong with them? A new weapon shouldn't be dismissed simply because it doesn't do a lot of damage in its current configuration. Also, if the extremists were operating in this area, they want me to trap them, and deliver them to the Starbase so a ship can deliver them to a re-education facility.  
  
'I need to remember though, that they are operating with a two month delay in communications. It takes one month for a message to arrive at Starfleet Command, and another month for their reply to arrive. Means that it took them several months to come up with that level of political idiocy and compress it into a message that short. I have to admit, it takes a rare kind of genius to do that. Unfortunately, all of the geniuses like that seem to wind up in Starfleet Command, or in the Federation government.  
  
'But I can turn this to my advantage though. I can say that the extremists are operating from a hidden base, and need a second ship in this area to help me find them. I can get the crew I need as well, saying that the extremists would be more willing to trust us if the crew was not as well known for their dedication to Starfleet protocol.' Smiling at the ease of what Starfleet just made possible, Captain Morgan began redoing his reply to Starfleet headquarters, attempting to redo the message to fit more in line with what they just sent him.  
  
*  
  
After the cargo had been transferred, Captain Morgan opened a communications line to Commander Verrin, requesting a direct link.  
  
"Yes Captain?"  
  
"Commander, I just got a transmission from Starfleet headquarters, and I'd like to discuss it with the senior staff. It's set up for today at 1600 hours, and I'd like you to be present. I'll be discussing the message from Starfleet Headquarters, and an idea I've had to help us find the slaver's base. Can you make it?"  
  
"Yes, Captain. I will be there."  
  
Captain Morgan cut the link, and turned to the main computer, selecting a specific item on the menu presented. The item selected connected him to the intra-ship messaging system, and he selected a specific address scheme. The one selected would send the message to all the senior staff, and Captain Morgan composed a message to them, informing them of the meeting in three hours. The three hours would give them enough time to complete whatever they needed to, leaving them free for his announcements. He included his idea of getting a new ship out here, along with his current work-up of the crew listing.  
  
*  
  
The time for the meeting arrived, and Captain Morgan had done his best to create a casual environment. This was to be a meeting where he wanted their ideas and discussion, not blind obedience. As a result, the regular chairs around the table were casually arranged, and there was a platter of snacks on the table.  
  
As people arrived, they began to move around, casually talking to one another. They were comparing the crew lists Captain Morgan had selected, and a few changes were being made to the lists based on their own experiences with the people there.  
  
When Captain Morgan arrived, everyone there understood that the meeting had started, and arranged themselves around the table, and waited for Captain Morgan to sit down first at the head of the table. After Captain Morgan sat down, they sat down as well, and waited for his invitation to begin.  
  
"I assume all of you have read the proposed crew listing, and do any of you have any suggestions or changes they would like to make?"  
  
"Captain, I assume you picked all of these people because they are not sitting well with Starfleet Command?"  
  
"What makes you say that Lieutenant?"  
  
"Because I know three of the people on this list, and they were among some of the wildest partiers in Starfleet Academy. Call it a hunch, but I don't think they've changed a bit."  
  
"But do you approve of them?"  
  
"They were good all right, I will admit that. But you're talking about putting Carla Haskins in charge of Engineering!"  
  
"Can she handle it?"  
  
"Captain, let me put it this way. One Friday night, she goes out partying that weekend and the rest of us are studying for an Engineering final on Monday. We don't see her at all that entire weekend, and on Monday morning, we are getting worried. But ten minutes before class starts, she shows up in uniform in the classroom, with one of the biggest grins on her face. One of the women sitting next to me says she saw Carla come in that morning, and she swears that Carla's outfit was a fire hazard because it had so much alcohol all over it.  
  
"So Carla shows up, slouches back in her seat, and seems to zone out when the instructor hands out the tests. When the instructor tells us to start, she looks over her test, and starts going through it page by page, circling answers and writing stuff down. She finishes half an hour later, and the entire class is staring at her in shock. She hands the instructor her paper test, and leaves the classroom grinning. On the way out, she blows a kiss to everyone in there."  
  
"So how come she is still in Starfleet, after doing something like that?"  
  
"Because up until that day, nobody had ever gotten a perfect score on one of Starfleet's Engineering exams. I mean, normally they have to curve them, but she got a perfect score!"  
  
"So she knows what she's doing, when she's around?"  
  
"Well, yes. I have to admit, that in a pinch, I'd want her around. But as far as keeping track of her on a day to day business, it'd be a nightmare!"  
  
"How do you feel about her taking on the responsibility as Chief Engineer?"  
  
"Since she'd be on a ship, she couldn't go anywhere. So I have to admit, she would do a good job."  
  
"Good. Do you have any other comments?"  
  
"Compared to Carla Haskins, the others are some of the best-behaved people in Starfleet. If she is put in charge as Chief Engineer, the others will be no problem at all."  
  
"Very well then. Engineering is settled. How about the other sections," said Captain Morgan, as he turned to the other officers?  
  
Several other officers were named, each with their own quirks, and a few changes were made to the command structure of the new ship being requested. The various quirks ranged from changing the simulations around, to pulling pranks on instructors who were known for their devotion to Federation protocol, to adding food coloring to various meals to make them look different. But all in all, the other officers were able to be fit in to their slots with a minimum of change.  
  
After that was done, Captain Morgan turned to the main display screen, and told them that the message came straight from Starfleet Command. The senior staff watched the message in silence, occasionally taking down a few notes as they listened. Afterwards, Captain Morgan laid the floor open for discussion.  
  
"Captain, as senior medical officer, I can assure you that these beings are not human."  
  
"True, Doctor Armstrong. But I would like everyone here to remember that this message is based on data that is over five months old. As far as we knew back then, there was a group of people who were stealing ships and shuttles. So along those lines, Starfleet sent us the most relevant data. The point I wanted to raise is this; do we pursue the extremist group, or do we continue after the slavers?"  
  
"Captain, as an engineer, I would say that an extremist group is like a malfunctioning light, while the slavers are a warp core malfunction. The slavers should be our first priority, and any extremists can be dealt with later."  
  
"As Chief Tactical Officer, I would agree."  
  
"I agree too," said Doctor Armstrong.  
  
The others agreed with the policy of dealing with the slavers first and dealing with the extremist group later. Turning to Commander Verrin, Captain Morgan asked her, "Do you agree with them as well?"  
  
"Yes Captain, I do."  
  
"Then it is agreed, we will continue after the slavers, and worry about the extremist group later. Is there anything else any of you wish to talk about?"  
  
"How about two days of shore leave at the Starbase?"  
  
"Sounds good. Maybe we can get another Excellon - Starbase 121 competition going again. I'll ask Commander Wilson if we can."  
  
Turning to his communications console, Captain Morgan called Commander Wilson's office. "Commander, this is Captain Morgan. I was wondering if we could have some shore leave at your facility."  
  
"Be glad to Captain. Your ship and crew are like heroes it seems around here, and the local town has wanted to throw a party for you and your crew. I assume you'll be down here for two days at least, to allow your crew to have a wonderful time?"  
  
"Two days is what we figured also. You can expect the first set of shuttles down at 1700; the next one will land at 1730, being down every half hour and up every fifteen minutes before and after the hour. The shuttles will continue like that until 0800 tomorrow morning. Sounds good?"  
  
"Sounds good. I'll arrange for my security people to provide busses and other transportation into town, and they'll have others to help your people while in town. Maybe you'll enjoy yourself too this time?"  
  
The last bit was done with a little smile, as Captain Morgan hardly seemed to take leave at all. Whenever he did go down to a planet, it was always to meet with the people down there to go over something that was important to the Excellon's mission of preserving the peace. Several officers smiled behind Captain Morgan's back, knowing that the Commander on the planet was emotionally Captain Morgan's equal, being in command of an entire base as Captain Morgan was in command of an entire ship.  
  
Captain Morgan smiled back and said, "If I get some free time, I might be able to come down there. But with the paperwork that can only be done here, I wouldn't count on it."  
  
Behind Captain Morgan's back though, Commander Verrin signaled to the others to meet her in her quarters after the meeting was over. Commander Wilson saw them whispering, but gave no clue of it to Captain Morgan. Commander Wilson continued talking, "Okay Captain, but assuming you did manage to get free, are there any games you prefer?"  
  
"Assuming I get free, volleyball was one I enjoyed. But since I am requesting another ship out here to help free us to look for the base, don't count on it."  
  
"Well, Captain, good luck in getting your request filled. Lately, it seems as though I am on the short list of getting supplies. Maybe some bean counter noticed my request for the antimatter plant and the small shipyard, and started wondering. Fortunately, the shipyard is due in a couple days, so that will be taken care of. After that, I might be a little pressed to get extra supplies through official channels."  
  
"I'm sure you'll do fine Commander."  
  
"See you later Captain, Starbase 121 signing off."  
  
With that, Captain Morgan turned back to his senior staff, and told them to have their departments ready for the shore leave, and inform them of the celebration in town that night. Seeing as there was nothing further to discuss, the meeting was concluded, and all the senior staff left the room, except for Commander Verrin.  
  
"If I may speak freely Captain?"  
  
"Feel free to."  
  
"Paul, you've been on board the ship for too long. You need to get down to a planet for something other than fact-finding, and now would be a good time."  
  
"You know as well as I do that there is still a lot of paperwork to be done before I can do that."  
  
"Then do it tomorrow. How much of it can wait until we go back into space, escorting the Amemnon?"  
  
"I take it that you are not going to give up until I agree to go down and enjoy myself?"  
  
Susan Verrin just smiled at that. "You might say that. How about if I schedule a volleyball game tonight, between the Excellon's command crew and the Starbase's senior personnel?"  
  
"All right then. I'll be ready in fifteen minutes."  
  
"Oh Captain, just bring your outfit with you. We can change down on the planet in the gym there."  
  
"I'll have a bag packed in eight minutes. See you in the shuttle bay in a few minutes?"  
  
"How about at 1740 Captain? That will give us both a chance to clear up any paperwork that needs to be done by tonight. Is that good?"  
  
"That's good for me. See you then."  
  
Commander Verrin managed to conceal her smile as she left the meeting room, and made it to her room, where the rest of the senior staff was waiting.  
  
"Sorry I took so long, but I was able to convince him to go down to the planet tonight for a volleyball game. Let's get Commander Wilson on a comm line, so we can arrange everything."  
  
The communications was set up, and they set a game for 1800 hours, along with a location for it as well. The gym was near the beach, so the place was fully equipped to handle a variety of outfits and activities.  
  
*  
  
At 1740 hours, the senior staff met in the shuttle bay, all dressed in casual outfits, and ready to show Starbase 121's personnel who was better at volleyball. Everyone there had their own Federation sports bag, with very little differentiation among them.  
  
The shuttle ride down was relaxed, since officers not in uniform were not required to be formal or adhere to all of Starfleet protocols concerning addressing superiors. Everybody on board was using their first names, and were relaxing. The enlisted personnel on board were enjoying the spectacle, as lieutenants and a commander harassed the captain about not having enough fun on board ship. They made sure to keep their laughter silent, but anyone who looked at their faces could tell that they were enjoying the show.  
  
When the shuttle landed at the starbase, a small hovertaxi was there to meet the senior personnel. All of them piled on board, and were driven to the gym, which was appreciated since the gym was six miles away from the landing area. Arriving at the gym, everybody went into their appropriate changing rooms to get dressed for the game.  
  
Captain Morgan was among the latter people to leave the room, as he took the time changing into the regular volleyball outfit he wore. A Starfleet shirt, a pair of sweat shorts, and a good pair of shoes were his usual outfit for volleyball, and he wore the same things now. He was getting himself into the mental readiness to play volleyball, so that he would make as few mistakes as possible.  
  
But Susan Verrin came out of her changing area, and asked him a single question. She was behind him when he came out, so it is understandable what happened next.  
  
"Paul, what do you think of my outfit?"  
  
He turned around, and Paul Morgan's concentration evaporated into thin air. The sheer shock caused him to trip over his own feet, and his tongue seemed to be tying itself into knots as he looked at her.  
  
"What's the matter? You act like you've never seen a string bikini before."  
  
"Um, Susa, Comma-, is that what you're wearing to the volleyball game?" Paul Morgan's mind was racing now, trying to figure out what was going on, while the rest of his body slowly started to put itself back into some sort of order.  
  
"Oh, that's right. I only mentioned that we would have a volleyball game. I never mentioned that it would be a beach volleyball game. You know, the one where everyone wears a swimsuit while they play? I guess it must have slipped my mind." Susan Verrin said this with a smile on her lips, and Paul Morgan realized that she had planned this whole excursion and her outfit just for this effect.  
  
Then her words managed to get past the blood thundering in his ears, and realized that everyone except him would be wearing their swimsuit, and he would stick out like a sore thumb. Solving the problem in the easiest way possible, Paul merely took off his shirt, and tossed it back onto his bag in the changing room, and walked out the door.  
  
Susan Verrin watched him take off his shirt and leave, and had only one thought, 'Nice.'  
  
*  
  
Everyone was waiting at the volleyball net as Paul and Susan walked up. Judging by the smile on her face, everyone knew that the famous Captain had been completely fooled. The teams from the two commands gathered on opposite sides of the net, and play began.  
  
Within a couple minutes, it was obvious that Paul Morgan had understated his ability in volleyball. The ball never touched the ground near him, and whenever he hit the ball, the opposing team hardly ever had a chance to hit it in time. Calling a timeout, Susan Verrin got Paul over in one corner, and began to talk to him. The others took the opportunity to rest and have a drink.  
  
"Paul, have you ever played volleyball before? Don't give me that nonsense about a couple times, I want to know exactly how good you are."  
  
"I was on the Starfleet Academy team, and was considered one of the better players there. Why?"  
  
"Because this isn't about competition out here. While officially, we may be competing for points, the main goal out here is to have fun. You've probably already noticed that most of us aren't shooting the ball to you, and that Commander Wilson's team isn't hitting the ball to you that much. Also, you are deliberately picking on that poor lieutenant back there. She can barely even see your shots coming, and you've hit the ball to her nearly every single time. I've looked at her, and she is close to crying.  
  
"You're using the wrong strategy out here captain. The main goal here is not to score points, but to have fun playing. I'm willing to bet you even reviewed their files to see who would be the most dangerous opponents out here."  
  
Paul turned away, all but admitting his actions. Susan continued on, taking advantage of her situation. "Now I know you've always done your best to achieve your goals by using all the information at your disposal, but in this case, the goal is not to beat the other team, it is to have fun. Laugh a little, miss a few, and let everyone have fun. If you can pull that off, while not making it obvious, I think you'll be a much better player. Now let's get back to the game."  
  
Turning back to the others, who were returning from getting their drinks, they resumed their positions, ready for the next volley. This time, Paul was still dominating the court, but it seemed as though he had used up all his energy the first round. But he was also sharing the ball, passing to others instead of immediately slamming the ball back, and keeping everyone on the starbase team on their toes. Commander Fendrin, the starbase's doctor, was among the better players, but even she was being forced on the defensive by his strikes. Paul was even telegraphing his moves to a few others, by blinking his eyes twice, he told them that he would hit the ball to them.  
  
The game proceeded smoothly after that, as everyone was enjoying themselves, and finally, the game ended due to a general desire to catch their breath more than anyone winning. Susan Verrin went over to Paul, and began talking to him quietly.  
  
"You're not really out of breath are you, Paul?"  
  
Paul just shot her a look, and briefly smiled, indicating a yes without anyone else hearing.  
  
"I noticed you double blinking at others. That was a good trick, but it became rather obvious to others. Not the blinking, but generally we knew that who ever you looked at for a moment, you would be sending the ball to them. Still, I have to admit, everyone out here did have a lot of fun."  
  
"So now we get changed and go into town for dinner?"  
  
"Not just yet. There is usually another part of beach volleyball that is usually done, and when everyone gets back up, I'll explain how the teams are chosen."  
  
Paul looked at her funny, and wondered what she meant by that. He had a funny feeling he would soon find out, and it might even be enjoyable.  
  
Several minutes later, everyone had managed to get back on their feet, and Susan Verrin was ready to do the next part of the game.  
  
"All right everyone, it is time to change the teams around a little. To avoid having to deal with lots of picking and choosing, the easiest way would be to simply do guys versus girls."  
  
Several people looked around, and counted that of the eighteen people playing; only six were guys. "Won't that give an unfair advantage to you,? asked one of the men?  
  
"Don't worry, we'll take it easy on you," returned Susan.  
  
The teams divided up, with the six guys on one side of the net, and the twelve women on the other side. The game began again, and Paul found his skills being pushed to the limit, as he had to cover more area than before, and there was less room to get the ball onto the opposing side. Not only that, but he also had to make it look fair for both sides, and he found himself thrilling each minute the game went on, as nobody seemed to be spotting his activities.  
  
As the teams rotated around their areas, Paul found himself face to face with Susan. She seemed to want to say something to him, and he began to pay more attention to her.  
  
"Paul, while you are doing well, you are letting some of your skill show back through. You have to let us win in a way that we will remember."  
  
"I know. I did notice though, that when we rotate next, I will be directly opposite that lieutenant you pointed out to me before, and you and Deanna Fendrin will be on the front lines as well. I've got an idea."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Next time you get the ball, fake as though you are going to pass it to Deanna, but really pass it to the lieutenant. She will then spike it towards me, catching me off guard."  
  
"Why would that work?"  
  
"Because as an experienced player, I would be expecting the attack to come from the best player on your team, not her. So I will be jumping up to intercept Deanna's shot, but will be completely out of position to intercept the lieutenant's shot."  
  
Susan smiled at the idea. Although it might look set up, it would give the young lieutenant a reason to remember the game favorably. She quickly communicated the basic idea of the plan to Deanna, and Deanna smiled also.  
  
The game went on for a few more minutes, and then the shot happened. The ball was knocked over to Susan, who deflected it. Seeing the deflection, Paul knew the plan, and began jumping to block the normal shot by Deanna. But Deanna didn't go for the ball, and instead Lieutenant Paula Brown hit the ball directly towards Paul. Seeing the hit, Paul began turning as though in surprise, and the ball caught him straight in the face.  
  
He fell back down, surprised at her rather good shot, and everybody stopped the game right there. But Paul began laughing, and soon everyone was joining in the laughing, with most of them thinking that Paula had managed a one in a million shot and had totally surprised him.  
  
Paul accepted the hand that helped him up and dusted himself off, laughing at the shot that had taken him down. His reaction had been so natural, everybody was laughing, and Paula was getting several congratulations for her shot. He went over to her and shook her hand, and everybody began shaking hands from the two teams, to show they were willing to undergo a little humiliation to have fun.  
  
The two teams changed in their respective rooms, and came back out, intent on having a little fun on the town before they returned to the ship or their quarters, depending where they were based. Paul and Susan wound up going together to the party that was going on. They danced a little to the music there, and Paul had several drinks while out there as well.  
  
Unfortunately, Paul wasn't that experienced with alcohol, and he eventually passed out. Susan realized that she had a problem on her hands, and managed to get John Faithen to help her out. They managed to get Paul back to the taxi, and brought him back to the shuttle area. They got on the next shuttle, and took Paul Morgan back to the ship, where they laid him out on his bed, and went to their rooms, as they had drunk a little too much as well.  
  
*  
  
The next morning, Paul Morgan woke up to a horrible sound coming from beside his bed. Wincing in pain, he saw that the loud sound was coming from his bedside alarm, which had been turned to low. Stumbling to his bathroom, he managed to get himself cleaned up in time for morning assembly on board the ship. He was his usual crisp self, and only those enlisted and officers who had seen him the night before knew that the Captain had gotten falling down drunk.  
  
After assembly, Paul Morgan stopped by the sickbay, and asked for some aspirin for his headache. Jenna Armstrong, the ship's doctor, had been told all about his activities the night before, and had already prepared a good headache remedy for him. The ingredients were not listed, but it was green and bubbled faintly. Captain Morgan looked at it suspiciously, but the headache between his ears told him to drink. It tasted no better than it had smelled, and Captain Morgan said so.  
  
"Well Captain, at least now you're not thinking about the headache anymore."  
  
"If that's the only reason your brew here works, well, I suppose it is worth it." Captain Morgan angled his head slightly, as his headache did seem to be wearing off. But the taste in his mouth was beginning to take his attention, and Captain Morgan got an extra flask of water for himself, to help himself try to get rid of the flavor before lunch.  
  
The rest of the day passed easily, and the crew went down again for a night on the town. Susan tried to get Paul to go back down again, and managed to merely get herself involved in some paperwork that needed doing. But Paul did go down to the surface, and Susan made sure that he had a good time.  
  
This time, Paul stayed away from the alcohol, but the non-alcoholic drinks were many and varied, and Paul enjoyed the different flavors. Susan though, enjoyed alcoholic drinks, and was all but falling over Paul when he decided that she had had enough, and returned both of them to the ship. He also knew that she would have a big headache the next morning, and sent a message to Lieutenant Armstrong to have her headache remedy ready for Susan Verrin.  
  
The next day, the Excellon left orbit, and the Amemnon went with her. The command staff currently on board the Amemnon was very careful to give orders quietly while she was on board, as one look from her had left a helmsman gulping in fear. But things proceeded smoothly, and the Excellon and the Amemnon proceeded for another tour of the colonies.  
  
Captain Morgan had felt the routine begin to creep into the crew, as they were not getting sufficient action, so he developed several drills to entertain the tactical staff, and had one officer figure out some way to keep the crew entertained between planets. The trip was made in the usual routine, but with several games being done onboard to keep the crew out of boredom and mischief. Several scavenger hunts were held, and some of weirdest items on the list that nobody expected to find outside of a museum turned up onboard. Authentic home-made rugs, a cook book, an old Earth wild west outfit, and a hand-written note dating from before the Excellon left port were among some of the various items that were actually found on board the ship.  
  
Commander Verrin had a similar problem, but with the large open space provided by the cargo module, she could hold games in there, with very few worries about getting in people's way. There had been several instances of zero-g handball, where the two teams would float in mid-air and try to get their ball past the other side. The problem with this is that if a player threw a ball to hard, the player would start rotating from the force of the throw. The game was a good balance between force, and strategy, as players would deliberately offer one option, in order to have the other side tumbling helplessly after a few more volleys. But everyone was having fun, and there were no hard feelings going on.  
  
*  
  
However, as they approached the region where the slaver base could be, all the crews began to tense up. They knew that the slavers were somewhere in there, and one of their ships could pop out at any time. The Excellon could not actually go in there yet, as the Amemnon had to continue its trip, and if the Excellon abandoned its post, the slavers might attack the Amemnon with all of their fellow crewmembers on it.  
  
But they encountered nothing again, and Captain Morgan almost wished that something would happen, as the waiting was getting on his nerves. 'Then again, I can't just call them up and schedule a meeting, can I?'  
  
He reviewed the movie list that the 'volunteered' morale officer had put together, and laughed. All of the movies in the list were various space movies that were considered 'cheesy' at the time they were played. It was as though the morale officer was deliberately exaggerating their situation, and providing a way for the crew to laugh at the predicament.  
  
The entire trip was getting on his nerves, as he figured that the slavers must be annoyed at not having any more slaves to grab. If the culture was devoted to victory in battle, then there was probably a power struggle going on right now. While that sort of struggle could benefit him, by giving him more time to look for the base, it also meant that the one that won the struggle would immediately try to enhance his or her reputation by going on a major slaving spree. This spree could cover many planets, using the remaining transport to carry slaves back, along with whatever ship had originally begun attacking the freighters. He was afraid that something like this might happen, and he knew that there was a good chance that he would not be able to stop it.  
  
But the tour of the colonies was going well. The crew was behaving themselves, the planets were producing their goods at standard rates, and everything seemed to be proceeding smoothly. While proceeding near the sphere where the base had to be, Captain Morgan had an idea. 'What would happen if we had the Excellon so close to the Amemnon that the two warp fields were extremely hard to tell apart? From a long distance, it should show as a single field, and might lure in anyone who is expecting a single freighter.  
  
At the next colony, Captain Morgan called a meeting of the senior staff, and outlined his plan to them. There were several thoughtful faces, and the discussion was spirited.  
  
"Captain, what happens if we take too long doing this, and we are late for our next colony?"  
  
"We can simply set up a route that will keep us on time, or only mildly late."  
  
"Can the sensors on the Excellon keep from crashing into the Amemnon's rear?"  
  
"Yes they can. We can even reset the smaller radar in the nose to act as a Doppler system and ranging system in one. If the Doppler reads as closing, the duty officer will be notified, and if we get too close or too far, we can adjust course."  
  
"What about coordinating the two warp fields?"  
  
"We can use a subspace communications system between the two ships, to allow the two engineering departments to coordinate. That will allow one ship to avoid messing up the other's warp field too badly."  
  
With most of the main problems solved, the rest of the officers agreed with the idea, as it would allow them to engage some of the slavers that had been attacking the colonies. Who knew, they might get the last freighter back, or even one of the ships that had attacked the freighters to begin with. But they knew that who or whatever had done this was dangerous, so their eagerness was tempered by the fact that they could be in a fight for their lives.  
  
*  
  
A new travel route was drawn up, and the Excellon began edging in behind the Amemnon. The helm position was doubled up, giving a redundancy that was important. Since both ships were traveling less than a tenth of a light-second apart while they are traveling at warp two, any deviation was important to notice. The range and Doppler reading were relayed to both ships' bridges, and to their engineering sections, allowing everyone involved to know exactly how far they were apart, and whether they were closing or separating.  
  
Still though, everyone was keeping a careful eye on the sensors themselves, because if the sensors went bad, the two ships could close on each other without anyone noticing. Captain Morgan set the ship to condition Yellow, which was one level below General Quarters, to make sure the ship was ready for anything. Under condition Yellow, everyone near the outer hull was in vacuum gear, with only the helmet plate up. By having everyone in vacuum gear with the helmet on, all that was required was to simply slam the faceplate mask down and the person could then survive in a vacuum for up to two hours. The galley was busy making sandwiches for everyone, so meal preparation and clean-up were minimized, and meals could be eaten at the person's job location. This way, only one person was needed to run down to the galley, pick up a bunch of sandwiches, and return with everyone's lunch.  
  
The various departments were taking the opportunity to get extra training in for their people, and making sure that everyone could still function with vacuum suits on. When a vacuum suit was on, vision was slightly distorted around the edges of vision due to the faceplate, and touch feedback was ruined by the gloves. Not only that, but everyone had to be careful moving in the halls, as the suits wee on average two inches thick, with the extra oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide scrubbing units mounted on the back. Fortunately, the units were small, so they only stuck out four inches from the suit. Still with everyone being bulkier than before, it was necessary for everyone to take care when moving around to avoid bumping someone or something.  
  
But everyone was ready for battle, and the Excellon was ready in case anyone wanted to pick a fight. So the ships prowled through space, waiting for anyone to come too close. With the Amemnon in front, the warp signature looked like hers, for the Excellon in the rear was hiding her warp signature well. If anyone wanted to pick a fight with a freighter, they would be in trouble.  
  
The Excellon waited, as the route passed deeper into the sphere, with all its passive sensors looking for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly a call came from the Amemnon, "Excellon this is Amemnon, we've got to drop out of warp! There's a storm up ahead!"  
  
Even as they spoke, the officer saw the numbers between the excellent and the Amemnon decreasing. Calling out to the helmsman, he yelled, "Stop us!"  
  
The helmsman had also seen the numbers start to drop, and her hand was already on the throttle control when the officer yelled. She immediately pulled back on the control, and the electronics told the engines to come to a crash stop, completely disrupting their warp field in an attempt to stop the ship's velocity. The engines strained, and a few circuits blew out, but the Excellon managed to come out of warp, and was barely two miles from the Amemnon's stern as both ships came to rest relative to each other.  
  
Captain Morgan had felt the vibrations as the engines had strained, and was rushing up to the bridge. While he was coming up there, Susan Verrin contacted the Excellon and began to fill them in.  
  
"Sorry about that Excellon, but our sensors suddenly picked up a subspace distortion directly in our flight path. It would have been too strong for our engines to handle and it was too large for us to maneuver around, so we had to come out of warp quickly. I was watching the sensors behind us, and I was sweating as I watched the range between us drop. How are things over there?"  
  
"Pretty good Commander. I've got damage control teams looking over the ship now, and they should have reports for me in a few minutes. I think we shaved a few years off our ship's lifespan, and a few years off mine too. In the meantime, I am going to take a good look at that subspace dis-"  
  
"Sir, incoming vessel! Bearing 238 by 015. Coming in at double impulse!"  
  
"General Quarters! ETA?"  
  
"It's within missile range right now, laser range in another five seconds. For those ion weapons, three seconds to large ion range, and eight seconds to small ion range."  
  
"Full sensors. Tell me what you get on it."  
  
"Active sensors on-line, awaiting return, there. No shields up, judging from the ion exhaust, it has two main thrust sources, each as powerful as our own, ship mass estimated near our own judging from the warp field strength and ion exhaust."  
  
Captain Morgan arrived during that report, and waited for the end before saying, "Report."  
  
"Captain, we have an unknown coming in from 238 by 015, it's in missile range, and we'll be in large ion range now."  
  
As though to punctuate his report, the unknown ship began firing the ion bolts. Three locations were firing, and one was rapid firing.  
  
"Impact, starboard shield, looks like three large ion weapons, one is repeating! Total five impacts."  
  
"Starboard shield is down to forty percent."  
  
"Yaw us ninety degrees to starboard. Lasers, open fire, full power. Lock in a missile solution for eight missiles at ten megatons each."  
  
"Captain, the subspace distortion is interfering with our own warp field. Our maneuvering is a little sluggish, figure eighty percent of normal. Deeper in, we'll be even slower."  
  
The warp field was not used just for traveling at faster than light speeds, but also for aiding the impulse engines. By dumping most of their mass into subspace, a ship could easily triple its acceleration from its engines. But the subspace distortion was interfering with their warp field, causing their ship to have more effective mass than normal, leading to a resulting decrease in maneuverability.  
  
"Looks like we're here for a brute force fight. All right, launch missiles."  
  
Eight tubes were suddenly forced open, and the missiles within blasted forth, seeking their target. The slaver ship detected the sudden launch, and began targeting the missiles with its weapons. But it only had three guns, and two of them were slaved together, meaning that it could only target two missiles at a time. But their size was such that they could easily be missed, meaning that only one of the missiles was destroyed, and the other seven detonated their loads near the enemy ship.  
  
The electronic interference from the missiles hammered the ship's electronics, but they were designed to handle high power surges, and they held. Many of them shorted out from the blast, but the ones deeper in the ship had reduced effects from the surges, and managed to keep operating. The thermal energy from the missiles detonating was another matter though, and several hundred square meters of the ship's hull was suddenly melted, and the heat began conducting through the entire ship. Including the cooling system for their main reactor, which told the slavers that it was having trouble.  
  
"Captain, looks like they're doing a crazy maneuvering sequence. They're firing again!"  
  
The slaver ship had managed to get its weapons back on-line, and it fired them. The two guns on the outer 'wings' of it opened fire in single shots, but the center gun mounted on the long neck in front fired a long sequence, ripping off six shots before running out of power.  
  
"Impact, forward shields down to thirty-six percent. That gun in the center is a rapid fire one."  
  
"Is the ship in the firing cone for the main lasers?"  
  
"Almost there Captain. There!"  
  
"Full power to main lasers, fire!"  
  
The two lasers on either side of the spine of the Excellon had been waiting the entire time, with batteries at full power. The batteries began unloading their power into the coils around the lasing rods. The coolant systems went to full speed at the same time, trying to keep the rods from shattering under the heat they produced. The mirrors at the ends began glowing; trying to dump the massive waves of heat going through the one at the firing end, and the one at the stern of the ship was glowing as well, from reflecting the numbers of photons and other particles that were impacting on it.  
  
The twin beams lanced out towards the enemy ship, impaling it with massive flares of heat from the locations where they struck. The locations where it was struck glowed within a split second, and the metal began melting. But in space there was no gravity, so the heated metal simply stayed where it was, but the structure below was also getting heated massively. The structure underneath was what kept the neck of the ship from ripping to either side as the ship maneuvered, and to keep the engines of the ship from flattening the entire thing when they were at full power.  
  
The engines were at full power this time, and the slaver captain saw the massive damage and heating reports at the spot. Immediately ordering a sharp turn, and effectively losing the battle right there. For the sharp maneuver required the ship's structure to be relatively intact to work and the structure had been badly weakened.  
  
The neck of the ship simply snapped off as the slaver ship turned, and the beam began to play over the main hull as the slaver ship turned hard. The hull of the ship was melted as well, but was the only thing keeping the air in at some locations. Air pressure on the inside was kept that way only by the strength of the hull, and where the beam violated those places, the hull gave way.  
  
"Looks like, yes. Air venting from the target. Looks like part of their hull gave way under the beam, and air pressure inside did the rest."  
  
The venting air triggered many alarms on the slaver ship, but one location had a worse alarm than the others. For the beam had impacted directly on the cooling array for the main reactor, and the hull there was very conductive. The coolant was designed to absorb massive amounts of heat, but the system of pipes containing it was another matter. The surge of heat through them, combined with the coolant expanding suddenly, caused many joints to pop from the stress. Superheated coolant sprayed from them, incinerating anyone caught near them. The coolant itself was under pressure, and the entire system began relieving the pressure through those holes, causing them to widen and release more of the coolant.  
  
The main reactor had been powered by an antimatter reaction as well, but without coolant, it would soon overheat and the antimatter and matter would mix. The loss of coolant triggered a sensor, and the matter/antimatter stream began to slow down, vastly reducing the amount of power available. But the ship had heavy batteries on board, and the ion guns normally drew their power from them.  
  
But the guns were designed to fire directly ahead, and the ship's turn had brought them off-target. So the two shuttles were launched, and those were the armed variant. 


	4. Revelations

Captain Morgan: Bigger problem  
  
"Target is launching shuttles Captain. Unknown types."  
"Have all turrets target them. If they open fire, cripple them."  
The turrets on the Excellon began tracking the shuttles, and when they turned to face the Excellon, three turrets were tracking each. The shuttles closed into their range, and shots came out from each. Each shuttle mounted one of the ion guns, but they had the power to fire three-round bursts. Four of the bolts hit the Excellon's shields, reducing the weakened forward shields more.  
"Captain, forward shields are down to forty percent."  
"Turrets, open fire."  
The dorsal and two left turrets targeted the shuttle on the left, and the ventral and two right turrets took the one on the right. Their beams flashed out, invisible in vacuum, but rendered on the screen by the computer. Two of the beams missed, but the remaining four beams hit, and the shuttles were ruined under their caress.  
"Shuttles are no longer maneuvering Captain. Enemy ship is still moving, but impulse readings are down to roughly one-fourth impulse. It's still thrusting Captain, but not doing much else."  
Captain Morgan smiled for a moment. "Cheng, are those armed shuttles ready to fly?"  
"Um, yes they are Captain."  
"Good. I want them launched, and target the main ship. Our lasers are going to do a lot of damage to it, and I want that ship. We'll keep track of the two fragments, and help keep them out of any possible fire arcs." Turning to the rest of the room, "I want four boarding teams set up. Team one and two will secure those shuttles. Teams three and four will be fully armed. They will be leading the way into the nose that got snapped off, and I want them able to tackle anything in their way. They will only be going in after the first two teams are finished though."  
The security teams began getting their gear together, and the two armed shuttles were launched. They approached the nose section from the broken part, and began firing their ion guns at any locations that seemed to have lights, or had active power readings as detected by the Excellon. The shuttles proceeded around the nose, but stayed away from the area that had the ion gun, because it would ravage them if it fired.  
The boarding teams were ready, and they boarded their shuttles, wanting to find out who or what had been piloting those shuttles. They proceeded to the shuttles cautiously, and carefully made their way onto their hulls. Using armored space suits with thrusters, they jumped from their shuttle to the enemy shuttle, and used the thrusters to guide them on target. Making their way around the hull until they found a location to enter the shuttle, they went inside. Using their suit lights, and small glow-globs, they made their way into the shuttles, and began checking them for anyone that might be on board.  
But on each shuttle, the scene was the same. Two members of a new race were on board, in two positions. The rear of the shuttles was a large cargo hold, but they were empty. When each team reported that their shuttle had been safed, they set the two bodies in the piloting section of one of the shuttles, and put demolition charges in the other. If anyone still on board the other shuttle tried to do anything with it, they could simply detonate the charges.  
For the shuttle with the four bodies, the boarding party barricaded themselves in the piloting section, and kept a close eye on the other shuttle, which was visible through the window. The remaining boarding party took over the controls of the second Excellon shuttle, and guided it back into the Excellon's boat bay, where the assault team was waiting. One of the armed shuttles came back as well, and both shuttles were loaded up with the boarding parties. The three shuttles then proceeded towards the nose section, and the armored boarding units deployed from their shuttles. Landing on the hull of the nose section, they began making their way towards where the nose had been snapped off, figuring that there would be some way to get inside from there. Proceeding to one area that was relatively straight and had intact walls, they decided to set up a temporary airlock here.  
A temporary airlock was a necessity in space boarding actions. If a temporary airlock was not used, as the team gained access to more areas, those areas would vent air into the vacuum of space, and soon the entire ship would be without air. If you were trying to recover people, or fragile cargo, this was a very bad thing. As a result, a temporary airlock had been developed. This was little more than a simple door mechanism. However, since it was impossible to design a door that satisfied all hull configurations, so two more parts had been developed. The second part was a chemical that would stick to anything in vacuum, allowing a boarding party to create a location that would illustrate where the door would go. From there, the door could be moved into position, and the third item was created. This was a chemical that stayed liquid in vacuum, for a few seconds. The liquid was guided so that it would go between the door and the illustrated location. This would create the airtight seal. By using two people, one on each side, a single airlock door could be installed in one minute.  
The assault teams detailed four of their people to this task, while the remainder was posted at the entrance at the end of the hall. By creating two doors in this way, a new airlock could be created. Adding in extra air tanks would allow the assault team to keep the ship pressurized from the many times an assault team would have to enter and exit the ship. By stationing one of their people at each door, this prevented anyone from opening both doors out of ignorance.  
In the meantime, the team's demolition experts were applying a paste of high explosive to the door that led further into the ship, and the rest of the teams were readying their weapons. When the airlock group reported they were ready, and the demolitions team reported they were ready as well, the team leader selected gave the order. A sharp detonation occurred, and the door was no more. There were some shifting shapes in the darkness beyond, and glow-globs were thrown.  
Glow-globs were designed to stick to anything, allowing a team to create a light source wherever they were. They lasted for two hours, and at the end stopped giving off green light and gave off orange light for fifteen minutes. That orange light was the cue for someone to replace them before the light was lost. The components inside were designed to be broken to allow the chemicals to mix, and the gloves on an assault team were coated with a chemical that kept the globs from sticking to them.  
Two of the shifting shapes began firing on the assault teams, and they returned fire. Their lasers made the air glow as the beams poured their energy outwards in a line. One of the shapes was caught by one of the beams, and the sizzling sound of frying meat was heard. The other though, pulled out something shaped like a pistol, and aimed it at the assault team. Out from the end came a pulse of energy, which slammed into one of the assault team, frying part of his armor. But the assault team's armor was designed to be heaviest in front, and of all the locations on the front, the chest armor was the heaviest. As a result, the only effect on the trooper inside was to merely shock him slightly.  
The rest of the troopers saw what happened, and returned fire on the one that had shot. Five beams caressed the target's skin, and explosions occurred as the moisture within the skin was flash-boiled by the heat. The steam exploded out of the target's body and the being hit roared in pain. Surprisingly, the being did not attempt to find a good place to shoot from, but instead chose to rise up and pull out a knife. Yelling in fury, the being charged the troopers.  
Several of the troopers were surprised by the attack, but none hesitated, and the beams were dialed up to a higher strength, and five beams again fired. This time though, instead of simply causing the water to be vaporized, the beams cut too fast for that, and the being charging them was cut to pieces by the beams. The other one got up and charged also, apparently trying to get revenge on those who had killed the first. But charging several people that are waiting with long-range weapons pointed at you isn't a course of action that leads to long life. Beams fired again, and this one was cut to pieces as well.  
Proceeding further into the nose section, the troopers came across others who acted in the same way. They would fight for a little, and then charge into hand-to-hand combat. But each time they charged, they died, and within thirty minutes the assault team leader was reporting that there were no more hostiles on board the nose section. Regrouping at the temporary airlock, the assault team leader began exchanging command of the nose section with the standard team leader.  
The Amemnon was doing something unusual in the meantime. It was turning around so that the second cargo module was facing the nose section. Captain Morgan was curious about the ship, and he knew that there was no way for that ship to be spaceworthy in the amount of time they had. As a result, he had decided to carry the pieces of the ship with him, where they could be reassembled at the Starbase, and analyzed to their heart's content.  
In the meantime, it was time to deal with the tail section. The armed shuttles continued their dance around it, targeting any active power signatures with their ion weapons, preparing it to receive the troops. The shuttles came back around, and began deploying their troops again. This time though, the defenders were more prepared. The first wave of troops was thrown back, and the second wave was attacked slightly. But that seemed to be the limit of the defenders' attack capability, and the assault teams began moving forward again, this time investigating anything they found with laser fire. Most of the engineering section was still full of steam from the coolant leak, so they simply set a vent into there, and waited for the gas to disperse.  
In that process, the ship was cleared of more resistance, and when the assault teams reported that the tail section was secure, Captain Morgan told the engineering department to get the tail section ready to be loaded on board the Amemnon. The antimatter fuel in the tail section was emptied, and the smaller fusion plants on board were shut down to prevent any accidents from happening. The shuttles were also loaded on board, and the Excellon and the Amemnon turned their attention to getting back on course. They had succeeded in their mission, and one less ship was available to the slavers.  
They continued their route, but ran into no more trouble. The entire crew was in a state of euphoria, as they had managed to go up against one of the slavers' vessels in a straight up fight, and won. But a report from the Chief Engineer was about to change that. He told the Captain that he would like to brief the senior personnel on certain things his teams ha discovered while going over the slaver ship. Commander Verrin was there by communications link.  
"Captain, I don't think you're going to like what I've found out about the enemy vessel. First of all, those guns in the wings and the one in the nose are identical. The only reason that the one in the nose was rapid-firing and the ones in the wings weren't is that the batteries for them were removed. I don't know why, but the nose gun had a battery near it that can store up to ten shots worth of power. I am figuring that the wing guns would normally have a battery like that too.  
"Second, the shuttles were only carrying one gun each. They are normally designed to carry two each, and each of them normally has a battery with them as well.  
"Third, most of the interior of that ship was covered with rust or oil. This tells me that the ship wasn't maintained that well.  
"All those things together tell me that this ship was not a top-line ship. It was barely held together, the weapons didn't work properly, and it wasn't maintained."  
"So you're saying that this ship does not represent the full potential of what the slavers can build?"  
"Essentially yes Captain.  
"Fortunately though, there appears to be no sign of any sort of shielding system, and the hull isn't even armored. This could be where they never realized the advantages, or chose not to use them."  
"So the general consensus on the slaver ship is that it has lots of weapons, but almost no defense. What about the computer system?"  
"We're currently going over the computer recovered now, but it is taking a while. We're probably going to need the Starbase's assistance to crack the secret though."  
"Good. In the meantime, see what you can do to give me more information on the slaver ship, without tearing it up too badly. Is there anything else any of you want to add?"  
"Well Captain, when we transferred the slaver ship, we emptied its antimatter tanks. I'd like to get a portable fusion unit into the hulk to start seeing how much of the hulk I can get back on-line. After all, you did say that we needed another ship out here."  
Several officers looked at each other at the comment, and a mild chuckle ran around the table. The very thought of using a slaver ship to hunt other slavers seemed like a very good idea to them. Several officers began getting ideas too, about how they could improve the slaver ship.  
Captain Morgan saw the grins on the various faces around the table, and said, "Now I know that several of you want to get to work on the slaver ship, to improve it. But don't forget, that ship alone was a dangerous match. I also want you looking over the Excellon, seeing how she can be improved as well to fight a slaver ship like that in prime condition. In the meantime, we'll go with Commander Verrin's idea of naming the various classes seen. So Cheng, I want you and your teams to go over our captured Pirate-Alpha, and see what can be used to improve the Excellon. I also want you to go over the ship, and see where we can improve on it.  
"Tactical, I want you to get on the sensors. I want to be able to tell exactly what type of Pirate variant we might face next, and how deadly it will be. What level of batteries, types of guns, and if there have been any changes to their armor or shield status. Also, I want to know if it's carrying anything in its main hold, and what it is.  
"Ops, I want you to start looking over the Exellon, picking out anyone who might be willing to crew the ship.  
"Security, I want you to put together plans to board a ship like that. This one was empty, but if we catch one with living beings on board in the main hold, I want you to be ready to board their vessel and rescue them.  
"Commander Verrin, I have the most important task for you. Assuming we can get that ship running, I want you to think up a name."  
  
The two ships continued on their cruise, and stopped off at the colony of Omidron four. The colony of Omidron four produced various fabrics from the many creatures and plants that grew there. They even produced fabrics from minerals that existed there, including a variant of asbestos that was far more effective, while having practically no dangerous effects on humans.  
Omidron four was dependant on other colonies for its raw materials, while it produced the uniforms and outfits that were worn by many. Other fabrics produced were used to help crops by providing a surface for the young seedlings to grow on, while still other varieties were used as a form of tubing. The colony would take in custom orders from the starbase, and by the time a ship came around, any plants needed were grown, and the fabric was ready and waiting to be collected.  
As the Excellon settled into its orbit, and the Amemnon began the steady process of transferring supplies to and from the colony, the engineers from the Excellon were meeting with the engineers who had been working on the captured Pirate. They were sitting in the main mess hall, talking about what they had seen, and what could be done with it.  
"So I'm telling Wilson here, that ship needs a decent shield system. We should go with a modified type twelve system with six section overlay."  
"You idiot, a six section creates a cube effectively, and the shape of that ship means that a cube will be too darn big in terms of shield area and cross-section. We should be using a twelve section instead, which means it will use fifty percent less power because we'll be using a smaller surface for the shields."  
"Twelve sections? Do you have any idea how much 'fun' it's going to be trying to program the shield control and rigging up the generators to handle twelve different shield sections? Each edge between the shields has to be taken into account, not to mention corners, and with your design it will be twenty edges that the poor control has to deal with. Mine will only have twelve edges!"  
"How about a two-lobed shield design?"  
Several heads turned back to see who had thought up that crazy idea.  
"I'm serious. By having an upper and lower, or bow and aft shield, we will only have a single edge to worry about. There will be extra surface area to deal with, but that is a matter of pumping out the necessary power."  
The other engineers looked at her, and continued their arguments, with her included in it. To any outsider, it might have looked like they were going to kill each other, but this type of discussion was their preferred method of arguing, as they could let off energy, and have a fun technical and mathematical discussion at the same time.  
The decision was finally made to use a 6 sided shield configuration, with an unusual twist. Instead of the standard top, bottom, front, left, right, and aft shields, the whole system was rotated forty five degrees, allowing the forward part of the ship to effectively be protected by two shields. With the side 'wings' of the enemy ship swept forward, this configuration provided a lot more protection than a standard cube shield arrangement would. The novel idea was passed around to the various engineers, and as they discussed the shield arrangement, they began thinking about ways to improve the Excellon's shield system as well.  
Now all the Engineers had to do was sneak six shield generators into their section of space, without any starfleet 'blind beancounters' (their name for the accountants who try to measure the amount of material used to weld together the doorframes, while ignoring the fact that the ship was thirty feet longer than originally designed). But they were engineers, and to them everything was a problem to be solved. It was usually solved through loud arguments while viewing the world through the bottom of a glass, but they loved to solve problems.  
As for the new crewmembers that had come onboard the last time they were at Starbase 121, there was a lot of talk going on. They had been transferred out here, expecting a boring assignment, where Starfleet would not care about what they did. Instead, they found themselves on board a warship, fighting against unknown aliens. The few who were actual discipline cases were introduced to the concept of discipline under fire, and learned very quickly. Now that they were safe, for now, they talked to each other trying to come to grips with the fact of the aliens who were out there. They shared how they had been scared, and how they had come to grips with it. There had even been one person who was a pacifist on board the ship, and she was starting to modify her beliefs slightly. She did not like the idea of killing other beings, but since these other beings seemed determined to kill casually and repeatedly, she was starting to think that pacifism with a ready fist was more appropriate out here.  
  
Returning to Starbase 121, Captain Morgan and his crew were celebrated by all the people there. The Engineering crews started getting to work on a totally new computer system and a different mind-set of how to assemble a starship. The first engineers who went planetside were mobbed by the local engineers who wanted to know everything about the alien ships discovered. After several hours, after the first engineering crews had returned, and the ideas were being passed around the various taverns, the serious thinking began going on. Several teams were already connecting the main computer found in the ship to the Starbase's computer in order to crack its secrets. The starbase computer would copy the alien code, and then it would try to figure out what different items did.  
It would take weeks to figure out everything, but the local engineers were working on a substitute. Since they had no idea what the computer's details were, they were copying a standard computer core with a plug and play interface program into the alien vessel. This would allow the engineers to have a basic computer running, allowing people to have a chance to work in a shirtsleeve environment, but still having several of the necessities for working on a starship. Other work crews were hard at work trying to reattach the forward boom of the alien ship, but with the massive melting that had occurred when the Excellon's lasers had hit it, a decision was soon made to simply replace the material with Federation grade structural supports.  
After a couple minutes, it turned out the pirate vessel had better structural support per volume than a Federation ship. So all those structural beams that were being put in were four times the size of the Pirate ones, causing the passages between the nose and tail to become a very tight squeeze. The material was also sent to the starbase, for the engineers to take a look at it, figure out how it worked, figure out how to make it, and possibly figure out how to improve on it.  
The bodies recovered were also undergoing an examination. There appeared to be heavy bone plates on the forward part of the skull, and their immune systems appeared highly evolved, given the rate at which the defending cells still moved and reacted to various chemicals that were applied to them.  
Even more of a surprise, there was very little difference between the DNA of these aliens, and humans! In spite of several hundred light years distance, a different evolutionary path, there was roughly a 96% similarity between the aliens and humans. It was even possible for humans and these aliens to interbreed! The doctors and evolutionists were having a tough time trying to figure that one out, and the main theory so far was that humanoid life forms were inherently superior to other life forms, and would out-evolve anything else. It was a bit speciesist, extremely hollow, but no other reasonable explanation based on statistics or theoretical models seemed to work. The second theory was that some race had seeded various planets with the appropriate DNA at some recent point in history. If it had happened too far back, the DNA would have undergone too much evolution and change for the DNA to be this close. The final theory that was proposed was similar, in that some race had seeded the races a long time ago, but had been keeping an eye on them over the millennia, putting down any possible competing strands of DNA to keep that certain breed of DNA 'pure'. If a race had done that, then it was possible the race was still around, manipulating the other races for its own ends.  
But those arguments could wait; as it meant that several of the existing chemicals that were used against humans would work against this new race. They would have to be altered slightly, and only non-lethal items would be used, but knockout gasses, tear gas, and paralyzing gasses would probably work against them just like humans. Unfortunately, given their better immune systems, the rest of their bodies were probably built on a similar scale, meaning the concentration of the gasses would have to be much higher. Still, if assault troops used environmental suits, or stayed inside space suits, it wouldn't matter how concentrated the gas was.  
Those findings were transmitted up the chain to Starfleet headquarters, and the latest orders from Starfleet were received. As of the time the message was sent, Starfleet knew about the attacks, and had heard of the new alien species. The voice message from Admiral Hunter was long, and full of confusion.  
  
-Starfleet Headquarters to USS Excellon-  
"We have reviewed your report about the sightings of the new alien species and have decided as follows:  
"The Tuilasin, Secongo, and the Veichlonga, um, Veichlongoso, um, the Veich are to be detained at the starbase until we have managed to send an expedition to their homeworlds. The Prime Directive requires us to evaluate their civilization to prevent our interaction with them from interfering in their natural evolution. While at the Starbase, every effort will be made to simulate their natural environment and technology available.  
"The unknown race that you have discovered is another matter. We want you to cease any potentially hostile interactions with them, and begin to open diplomatic channels with them. We at Starfleet Command believe in peaceful cooperation with other races, but in the event a conflict become unavoidable, this unknown race will be allied with us and will be able to handle any combat, should it occur.  
"As for the various crewmembers you requested, we will be able to dispatch them within a couple months. Apparently their commanding officers have been unsatisfied with their attitudes towards Federation foreign and domestic policy, and have been attempting to transfer them off. As a result, you will be getting approximately one hundred and eighty new ship's personnel in the next three months. We anticipate you reiterating their loyalty to Starfleet, and returning them back to proper Starfleet ethics as soon as possible.  
"Unfortunately, your request for a second Vectron class starship has been declined for now. Since we anticipate a lessening of conflict out in your volume, we see no need for any additional ships to be posted to your location."  
  
Attached to the message was a section about recent technological developments by the Starfleet Science Department.  
Commander Fontanyard has made excellent progress in his work on the new structural field generators. His exact words were, "We anticipate designing new classes of ships able to take advantage of them, and get away from the blocky style of current ship designs. Soon our ships will be the envy of every race currently known, as their elegant forms sail from star to star, bringing the banner of peace to every man, woman, and child everywhere."  
Doctor Ventradin is showing excellent progress in developing a new matter transmission system that will allow us to send cargo and even people between one starship and another, without resorting to clumsy shuttlecraft and the loading and unloading process involved. We will soon be able to build sealed cargo transfer facilities, even on the most inhospitable of planets, and allow people to work in regular uniforms instead of needing heavier clothing to work. She said, "I foresee a future where there are no shuttlecraft or starships needed in the future, as we will be able to simply use a matter transmitter to travel from planet to planet. Starship accidents will be a worry of the past." When questioned about the limited range the transmitter currently has, she replied, "We have proven the basic theory is sound. From now on, all that remains is improving our technology to handle the theory."  
Commander Froushkin is currently working on a new type of beam that is designed to produce a cascading reaction in whatever it is aimed at. The beam is designed to cause a chain reaction through the lighter elements in rock, allowing large chunks to be broken down easily and cheaply, allowing us to reach the more valuable ores below. He said, "With this phased energy system, mining in the Federation will never be the same. We will no longer need leaky equipment or dangerous explosives, just a single projector pointed towards the ores we need. As the rock is cracked apart, low-level gravity plates will be used to drag it out of the way. The whole operation can be overseen by a single person sitting in comfort miles away, promising a new era of comfort for Federation citizens."  
Lieutenant Morster's project on antimatter transport pods is proceeding well. Her plan is to use automated probes to allow a starship in orbit to be refueled by small robots. Small sensors are place in the nose to allow the probe to automatically find and connect to the proper location in a Federation starship. "With these refueling torpedoes, ships are spared the danger of losing a person during an antimatter refueling accident. A ship can arrive in a star system, get refueled while waiting, and be on its way within hours, instead of days as is needed for current antimatter refueling operations. Also, by using on-site refueling, fuel tanks for starships can be reduced in size, allowing more room for the people on board to enjoy."  
  
Captain Morgan looked up from the report. 'How in the world do they manage to say all of this with a straight face' he wondered. Briefly wondering at how the people could be so eager to design more comfort into warships, he turned back to the report from Starfleet Command.  
"Return them to the technology and environment they were used to! They were being treated as slaves on board an alien vessel. How do they expect me to figure out what their native technology was? Their homeworlds! One of the beings doesn't even know what race he is, let alone where the homeworld is. Besides, most of them have taken Federation exams, and have done well. In fact, I want a few of them on my ship."  
But still, Starfleet Command had to be obeyed, and he began to think about how to get around that order. The only information he had on their native environment was in the alien ship, so he could argue that their native environment was on board a warship. It was a long stretch, but all he really needed to report was that a suitable environment had been found for them.  
The one bit of good news he received was that he would be getting the new personnel. With them, he would be able to swap out crews here faster, or even get a few combat specialists onto the other colonies to stiffen their resistance a little before the raiders arrived next time.  
The key bad news though, was that he wouldn't be getting another ship. Without that ship, he would have to limit his patrols to areas near the convoy route he would be setting up, and that would tie him down too much. If he had another vessel available, he could roam free in the region, poking his nose into everything. Without it, the pirates would be able to mass their forces against a known force at a known location and path, allowing them to decide when and where to engage him. Still, he could always try to get the alien ship repaired, and use it as the flying scout vessel.  
Even worse, since Starfleet will 'anticipate a lessening of conflict', that meant the fifteen megaton missiles would not be available for him to request. Without them, the only option he had was to use the variable yield missiles, and dial them to full power. But he had made a career out of using the best out of whatever weapons were available, and this time would be like the others.  
  
The starbase engineers had made good time with the alien structural members though, and had begun replacing their crude attachments with solid beams made from the same material. Even better, they were already starting to make replacements for the Excellon's main beams, and the results were estimated to provide four times the structural strength, in exchange for a fifty percent increase of the mass of the internal structure.  
The team studying the engines was making slower progress, as the materials used in the engines was requiring several new areas of materials science to be defined, let alone explored. Not only that, but the massive amounts of waste heat generated would not be wanted on board the Excellon, as the raider vessel had actually parked half of its impulse engine outside the ship in an attempt to get rid of the heat. Although a few items were noted that could be used, the sheer heat produced made the drive practically impossible to directly copy.  
For the ship's main reactor, the matter / anti-matter reactor was outwardly the same, but on the inside was a slight difference. Instead of using an electrical screen to spray the antimatter in, the pirates used a physical barrier made of an isotope of lithium to keep the reaction going. Initial tests showed that by injecting the material directly at the screen, instead of letting it collide randomly, allowed the reactor to handle higher power levels in the same amount of volume. Of course the coolant system was scaled up, and a coolant that had higher temperature storage was used, but the reactor system was similar to current Federation designs.  
As the engineers dug further into the ship, they began to realize that this wasn't a warship, merely an armed freighter! Even more astounding, was that this freighter was just as good as a top-line warship from the Federation. Some people began running estimates of what a full-power warship would be like, and the results were not good. In any one-on-one match up, the Vectron class starships were destroyed, and finally at three to one odds was a single starship able to return to the starbase.  
But if similar improvements could be made to the Vectron class starships, then the odds significantly favored the Federation ship. With the shields protecting it from the ion guns, a Vectron class starship could perform hit and run attacks, if the pirate vessel could be convinced not to follow. With the nuclear missiles on board, it would be easy for them to detonate nukes to their rear as they departed, or even used them for long-range attacks to weaken a pirate vessel initially.  
Several engineers there began drawing up plans, intending to create a schedule to refit the Excellon with the advanced systems. This time, they might actually ask the Captain before starting the refit process. Then again, they might get too excited, and start the process as they usually did, with lots of excitement and energy.  
  
Captain Morgan was unaware of their enthusiasm though, and kept on with his plans, seeking ways to turn possible disadvantages into advantages into advantages. The large ion weapons were the key. With their high power levels, he estimated that only twelve to thirteen hits were needed to punch through the forward shields, ten for the side shields, and eight hits for the rear shields. If there was some way he could either strengthen the shields or dissipate their hit over several shields, he could reduce the rate at which his ship would be burned through. He would need some way to insulate himself against their shots, but targeting systems for both ships used similar technology, i.e. using electromagnetic sensors to target.  
Wait! If he literally used a surface coating that did not conduct electricity at all, then potentially he could handle many ion shots on his ship, without any effect at all! But he still would need a way for the sensors to poke out, and that would require them to be exposed to the ion bolts. But the idea was there, and he began composing a message to Commander Faithen, his Chief Engineer. Paul figured that this sort of question was right up the Cheng's alley, so he did what any leader would do - delegate to the right person.  
In the meantime, he had another item to deal with. The ion weapons had enjoyed three seconds more firing time against his lasers, and he wanted to know if the extra time was due to better weaponry, or better targeting equipment. If it was because of weaponry, then the Excellon might be refitted with a few ion guns. If it was because of better targeting systems, then those systems could also be added to the Excellon, giving them equality in ranges, instead of waiting those three seconds extra while the enemy ship got to fire first. Passing that on to his Chief Engineer as well, Captain Morgan finally was able to get enough done so he could get some sleep.  
  
Commander Verrin was in her quarters, thinking of names. She was trying to think of a name that symbolized someone that had been fighting for the wrong purpose, and later was given a chance to fight so he or she could defend people, not enslave them. 'Reformed' seemed a bit vague, while 'Paladin' was more of a being that fought to defend from the beginning. 'Liberator' had the right sort of ring to it, but a synonym could serve her better. Telling the computer to bring up a thesaurus, she began scanning through the entries.  
  
Ensign Baker watched as the scanner records began adding more pictures to her simulation. She was charting nebulae, subspace distortions, solar activity, rogue planets, and many more pieces of interstellar debris and activities with her combined sensor display. Parts of it were out of date, but each time the Excellon went on its route, she would be able to fill in more gaps. Even better, if they managed to have the new sensor system installed, the volume of data she could view would more than double.  
Excitement filled her to the core, for the reason she had joined Starfleet was to explore, but her activities had always been at odds with Federation guidelines. They had wanted her to submit the proper forms to explore a given system, with her expected results listed beforehand, and her explorations were limited to those lines of research. But she liked to poke her nose into things! If she saw something interesting, she would poke and prod it until she was finally satisfied, and found something else. As a result, whenever people had seen her coming, they would try to hide themselves, or wind up being on the receiving end of a blond green eyed Inquisitor, who seemed to have less patience than was shown during the Salem witch hunts.  
Her social life hadn't been much better, as whenever she had found a guy, she would go all out during the first few months, and then stop afterwards. During that time, the guy would be overwhelmed, and her sudden leaving would leave him a bit startled, and almost empty. Guys that had dated her before tried to warn anyone she was interested in, but the experience usually left everyone drained.  
But still, here was a mountain of data, and news of a new type of subspace phenomenon. If she could figure out how to predict it, and what was causing it, then she would be able to submit that to the Federation science Board, and they would have no choice but to reward her for her efforts. 'After all,' she thought, 'who else could they chose?' But so far the information wasn't yielding to any pattern yet, and this was a mystery to her. Which meant that it did not stand a chance. She would study it every day, gathering data, until it yielded its secrets to her.  
  
Elsewhere though, events were occurring. A harsh warlord was taking his wrath out on several of his underlings, for the lack of communications with several of the prizes under his command. They in turn took out their wrath on the slaves present, as they did not dare speak back to their leader. The slaves, scurrying away from their 'masters'' wrath, began wondering what had happened. Rumors began circulating among the beings, and all of them were wondering what the cause was for the extra anger. Some rumors said the leader was simply bored, while others hinted that several of the raiding vessels had gone out and not come back. That last one was doubted by all openly, but secretly hoped for, because every slave there wanted to be free, or at least know that someone was trying to destroy the slavers. But their tasks remained unchanged, and they kept at their work, afraid to show the slightest hesitation among the slavers, whose anger was barely under control.  
In the meantime the warlord retired to his room, where the more favorable of his females and the slaves he had captured were there to entertain him. The stable of slaves present was changed frequently, as broken bones were common to those who 'waited' on him. With his rage at the prizes not talking though, he ignored the slaves, and simply sat there and brooded. He had to maintain control over the others, and any potential weakness by him would be like blood in the water to those under him who wanted his job, those of his neighbors who were wanting to expand, and those over him who wanted to place another in his location. He had to do something dramatic to demonstrate his authority, and he brooded, thinking over what would be a proper triumph. A few hours later, he smiled, as an idea had formed.  
  
Commander Wilson looked over the results of Captain Morgan's expedition so far. He had managed to recover two of the freighters stolen, and ten of the shuttles captured as well. Even better, one of the alien ships had been captured, with two of their shuttles taken as well. With the small shipyard and medium repair yard present at the base, his crews were finishing the repairs to the remaining damaged shuttles, and the energy absorption mesh would be ready to go soon after.  
In fact, it could even be possible to start equipping the various shuttles he possessed with one of three types of weapons. By simply copying the alien designs, he could start installing ion weapons on each shuttle, while changing the mount slightly would allow him to install laser weaponry. The final option was a missile launch system, with four missiles mounted near the hull, and a small turret to aim and fire them with. He decided to get a couple engineers started on various designs, as his calculations were strictly off-hand, and not the results of a proper design team.  
He also called up the results of the Potenton repairs, and was happy at the results. The life-support systems had been refitted to Federation standard, while the computer core had started yielding up it secrets. Although there was no mention of where the ship had returned to its hideout, there were a few records of the aliens bragging about recent battles, and the linguistics section was already working on them. With Ved's help, they estimated only a couple more weeks would be needed for the full translation, but a rough version would be available in about five days.  
While that was being done, he noticed a transfer alert on his messages. It seemed that Captain Morgan had requested some reinforcements out here, and they would be arriving in about a month. Unfortunately, there weren't any ships to assign them to. Captain Morgan himself would only have positions open for around forty people, while there were over one hundred people coming in. They would effectively need their own ship to travel in, and he began looking over the records for any ships that they could use to travel in.  
He saw one notation, and started laughing. Calling up the message program, he began composing the letter to the supply personnel at the base, recommending that they use a single ship to transport the necessary personnel to Starbase 121, instead of having multiple modules do the job. By sending them on a starship, their skills would be kept sharp, and there would be very little idle time for them to lose their devotion to Starfleet.  
That was what he wrote in the message. To himself though, he was chuckling, as he was trying to imagine the reaction of Captain Morgan when they arrived. He knew that official requisitions never worked, so sometimes it was best to use someone else's desires to accomplish goals.  
  
The next couple of weeks passed mildly for the Excellon and her crew. They went to the different colonies, picked up and dropped off supplies, and generally tried to reassure the colonists that they were looking out for the remaining raiders. Several of the colony administrators began wanting a few more shuttles of their own, as since the raiders had died down, it obviously meant they had moved on somewhere else. Captain Morgan had to be very diplomatic with them, telling them that he could not give them armed shuttles due to Federation laws, and unarmed shuttles could not be handed out either, because of their low population sizes.  
Even more fun was trying to convince the administrators that the pirates could still be around, as with the number of colonies in this region, combined with the fact that the base was still out there somewhere, there was sure to be a return of pirates soon. The area was obviously a close group of easy pickings, and no pirate would give up on a prize raiding ground such as this.  
Tetarin V had been doing some wonderful work since they had last visited, and the new sensor array was ready to be installed. The bulky components for the Excellon to use were brought up in orbit, while the other prototype satellites and their plans were loaded into the Amemnon. The Excellon stayed there a couple days to install one of the sensor systems, to make sure it worked properly then left, as Captain Morgan intended to have the remaining sensors installed on their journey. Arriving at the next two colonies, Vizder 7 and Borak 1, they unloaded the first sets of scanners, allowing the colonies to extend their detection range by twenty-five percent. These colonies received the scanners as they were the most isolated, and they would be able to further extend the sensor network in their direction.  
Returning by a different route, the Excellon passed by Pidora 2, and enjoyed a bit of relaxation in the hot springs there, while the shuttles loaded the silicates that had been boiled to the surface by the springs. The silicates were crucial to both computer systems and surfaces that could not tolerate carbon-based lubricants.  
Finally arriving at Starbase 121, Captain Morgan received notice that his new recruits were arriving in a-  
"Training ship! Why are they sending important personnel out in a training ship? That's the sort of vessel you use for cadets at the Academy, not for seasoned officers. Unless they want me to use that ship to turn them back into proper Starfleet officers and crew, then that ship will be almost useless out here.  
"But it still does have decent sensors, so I could use it as a recon craft, and possibly equip it with a few missiles and laser systems so it has a chance to sting a freighter before it is forced to retreat. Hopefully, it will do enough to slow down a pursuer, or at least drive them off. It will definitely give the people on board a training lesson, that's for sure. Not to mention live-fire exercises are the second best training for a fight. The best way is a fight, but I'd prefer not to expose them to a lot of combat in a mere training ship."  
Looking over the various training ships available, Captain Morgan began making plans on how to use each type, as Starfleet Command hadn't specified which type of ship was being sent. For the ships that had better science instruments, he would have them looking for distortions in nebulae. For ships with higher speeds, they would be fast scouts. For ships with higher small craft capacity, he would use them to scan planets rapidly. He kept on in the night, working over the designs and plans for them as well.  
  
Commander Wilson was working as well, attempting to figure out where he now stood. He had been loyal to Starfleet, and had been transferred out here about six months before Captain Morgan had arrived. He had been ordered out here to curb the amount of barter and unofficial trade the colonies were doing, and had anticipated a successful campaign against the inefficiencies involved. As time had gone by, he had managed to get the obvious bartering and exchanges down by ninety percent.  
However, as the months had gone by, he had become confused. His requests for supplies had always been quick and responsive in and around Earth space, but out here, the typical response had been, "we'll send it on the next freighter". Since the freighters only came around once every month, he usually wound up waiting for whatever he needed. Even more so when the part was rare, and he would have to wait several months for the freighter with the proper part to arrive. As a result, he had started to order extra parts that were above and beyond what was needed. At first, he had tried to rationalize his disobeying Starfleet orders by saying that the parts were merely in case he needed them in an emergency.  
Over time though, he had realized that he was doing exactly what Starfleet Command had sent him to stop. He was stockpiling supplies, supplies that could have been put to use elsewhere. Looking over at the other trade figures, he realized that the Administrators of the colonies had also started up their barter again, and he had no way to effectively stop them, as he was doing the same thing.  
So he had decided to do what he could. His base had several shuttles, and he wanted to reduce supplies being stored needlessly. So what he had done was start to loan out the shuttles to the colonies, unofficially, in order for them to get whatever they needed directly from each other, instead of trying to hide the goods on the freighters. This way, there was no need for them to actually perform any illegal activities, apart from the barter itself, and since the shuttles had still belonged to the Starbase, the colonies had not been violating any laws concerning excess spacecraft.  
But the shuttles started disappearing. Since they were being used so often for barter shipments, he had figured that a few colonies were keeping them so engage in a higher scale of barter, even of actual trade with each other. However, that theory had been under attack when the colonies had started complaining that the shuttles had not been arriving. He had been forced to try to use the shuttles remaining to cover for each other, but with each shuttle that went missing, his job became harder and harder. Eventually, he was all but lying in his reports, showing that the missing shuttles were undergoing overhauls, when everyone at his starbase knew that the shuttles were nowhere to be seen. If Starfleet Command had sent an investigator then, he knew it would be a simple matter to count the number of shuttles listed in overhaul, and look at the empty boat bays, and know that something was wrong. Each day he had been worried that someone was going to do the math, and have him arrested and sent to a penal colony for his actions.  
As the months went by, Commander Wilson had grown more and more relaxed in his position, and even decided to test Starfleet Supply. He knew that he was going to get into trouble for the supplies and shuttles, and he had started to not care any more. He ordered a few things that could be explained easily, even though they were fairly massive. Also, he began adding in smaller items, explaining that the large transport could fit them into the space left over. In that way he had ordered a hydrogen processing plant, the antimatter plant, and several other large items to his location, not to mention the other parts that were needed for routine operations. It seemed that Starfleet Supply had cared even less about his situation than he did, and that mood had started to infect the rest of the base, causing small discipline problems, lack of work being done, and similar problems.  
Then Captain Morgan had arrived. At first, he had feared that Captain Morgan had arrived, in an obvious warship, to arrest him and bring him to trial. As a result, he had projected the outward appearance of a rule-obeying Starfleet officer, while inside dreading what would happen if he had come aboard and asked to see the shuttles. Fortunately, he had been an actor in Starfleet Academy, and had been able to project the image properly.  
There had been no request though, and Captain Morgan had actually tried to go out and look for the shuttles. Getting curious, Commander Wilson had pulled Morgan's record, and several of his senior staff as well. Seeing not a well-groomed Starfleet crew, but a group of what would be termed misfits, he almost shouted in relief. It was obvious from the records that this crew was not here because of him, but because of themselves. Their Captain was the only exception to the group, but he had been put in command of the ship not because he subscribed to the Starfleet belief of everyone getting along, but because he believed the universe was dangerous.  
Even more amazing, was that Captain Morgan seemed to relax when at the Starbase. Most Captains seemed determined to exert their control whenever possible, to remind others that they were in charge of a ship that went places, and those assigned to stationary locations like a starbase were the has-beens, people who were on their way out of Starfleet, or were considered useless in a 'true' command position. It was true that most Starbase personnel were assigned there were merely waiting for their term of enlistment to finish, but that did not mean all of his people were there to goof off until they left.  
Then again, Captain Morgan's record was a good indicator of why he would feel that way. He was one of the people who was considered on his way out of Starfleet, or was considered useless. He had been passed over for prestigious posts because he had believed that there were dangers out there, and the Federation had needed warships to survive. Others had not believed that, and had managed to derail the usual promotion schedule for him. But his own stubbornness in doing his job, in spite of the obstacles put in his path, had been enough to keep him steadily advancing, although the promotions were grudgingly awarded. Finally, someone had thought up the way to get rid of him. The answer had been to give him what he wanted, and send him where both Starfleet and he wanted to go, to the Frontier.  
So now he, a rule-breaker, and Captain Morgan, a tradition-breaker, were out here trying to defend over two dozen colonies from a race that seemed determined to conquer everyone in their path. Even worse, judging by the tone of the messages from Starfleet Headquarters, was that they were on their own. Starfleet believed in peaceful coexistence with other races, but here was a race that only believed in coexistence when it was them in control, and everyone else as slaves. From everything seen, they were the only chance Starfleet had of surviving the next few years.  
Even though he was confined to a Starbase, Commander Wilson could still do a few things to help Captain Morgan. In fact, when the 'training ship' arrived in a few more weeks, Morgan should get a very nice surprise. He idly smiled as he tried to imagine Captain Morgan's most likely response. Turning back to his terminal, he began wading through the day's paperwork, getting items needed ordered, and approving the various modifications that people were asking for. He even toyed with the idea of ordering a few missile cells, and the vertical launch bays for them. Together, he could create a space-based missile platform that could be used to defend the Starbase if the aliens tried to attack. But that was sheer paranoia, as the aliens would be more likely to hit a colony that was closer if they started their raids again.  
  
The three ships cruised through space, their drives propelling them far faster than light. Two of the ships would have been recognized as freighters, once. Now they bore the claw marks of their new owners, showing that they recognized only the authority that could demand it by force. The third vessel was also covered in claw marks, but where the freighters had possessed markings of the claw itself, this mark showed extra detail, as though describing to the universe that it, and those who came from it were the ones who would control whoever they met wherever they went.  
Their destination was as yet unknown to those who would watch, but one could not help but pity their targets. Even worse is what the beings that controlled those ships planned for when they reached their target, for they had been stirred to wrath, and would not rest until they had drenched their anger in the blood of their opponents.  
  
The Excellon set out again, escorting the Amemnon on its convoy mission, heading to the different colonies, picking up and dropping off a little at each colony. As they traveled, they maintained the same single warp bubble as last time, using its own appearance to hopefully lure any slavers in so they could be dealt with. They had managed to do this once before, and had netted a slaver ship, and they were hoping for big game again. The Amemnon had shields and a conductive mesh on its hull and the cargo pods, so it could survive a few shots, and the Excellon had a little mesh as well. Not only that, but its shields had been redesigned to allow a slight bit of leakage. If they ran across a single enemy slaver ship, they would be more than a match for it, they hoped.  
  
The colony noticed the blips on the sensor grid, and wondered why the Excellon was early, as there were three blips there. But the wonder gave way to worry, as the blips refused to identify themselves or even respond to the hails from the colony. An optical telescope was swung to look at the blips, and when the image appeared on the screen, their blood froze.  
For they had seen the images of the Slaver ships, and here was one of them, along with two of the six remaining freighters that had been stolen. The administrators had seen how much loot a single freighter was willing to claim and steal, and here were two of them, not to mention how much loot a Slaver ship itself was willing to steal.  
Warming up the subspace communicator, they sent out an emergency distress call, sending it to every colony in range, in the hopes that someone out there would hear it in time to respond. Included in the message was a description of the ships involved, and their viewed capabilities. The message was set up as a loop, and every time the message looped, the new information was added to it.  
  
It just so happened that the Excellon was in range, but barely. Lieutenant Vessen was on duty when the call came in. He had been enjoying the privilege of night watch standing, where he was the only person in charge of the whole ship. Of course Lt Commander Faithen would sometimes stay up in the Engineering section, but he was responsible for the overall well-being of the ship. He looked up as the communications petty officer gasped.  
"Something wrong?"  
"Sir, we're receiving a distress signal from Ritzak five. They report they have detected three vessels coming in, one Pirate class and two of our freighters."  
Turning to the conning officer, a young ensign standing there he told her to lay in a course to Ritzak five but not to execute it yet. Moving over to a ship's phone, he dialed up the Captain's stateroom. When the Captain picked up the phone, Lieutenant Vessen explained the situation, and heard just two words concerning his course change and speed increase, "Do it."  
Hanging up the phone, Lieutenant Vessen told the conning officer to carry out the order, and picked up the phone to dial another number. Getting the Main Engineering number, Lieutenant Vessen explained the situation to Lt Commander Faithen, as they needed to get full power from the main power plant. It took only a few minutes, and then the Excellon was moving through space at its top speed of warp five, trying to get to Ritzak five in time to do something.  
The Amemnon was told to come out of warp, and stay in that location, so when the Excellon had finished its current assignment they could rendezvous and return to their convoy route.  
  
Nuclear fire ravaged the skies above the colony. Administrator Waldeck had known that Federation charter would not allow obvious weapons, but there had been some designs that could be used. One of the uranium storage containers had been redesigned with a few high explosives on the outside, and the net result was that the colony had made a few command-detonated nukes. Although they only had a twenty kiloton yield, the Pirate and the freighters were staying well-clear of the planet so far. Every time they had moved in, a nuclear charge had been set off, causing massive waves of EMP, not to mention the thermal effects from the blast as well.  
Unfortunately, the enemy slaver was a thinker as well as a fighter, and he launched his shuttles. A dozen armed shuttles charged towards the planet, with orders to destroy any items they found in orbit. The first two shuttles were destroyed as their ion blasts set off the explosives a little too close, and the remaining shuttles were a little more cautious, using their sensors to spot a nuke, then blasting the area with ion bolts until the object detonated.  
When the last bomb in the planet's orbit had been cleared away, the three ships moved in again. The Pirate began using its ion guns to take out local power centers, and the mayday signal was stopped as power to the subspace transmitter was cut off. When the last power centers had been cut off, the shuttles began landing on the ground, and unloading two dozen heavily armed slavers each.  
The colonists tried to stop them, by hiding behind barricades and firing their weapons. Unfortunately, the Slavers attacked in mass attacks, and while one or two of them might be hit, the others would overwhelm and kill anyone who tried to resist. Even worse though, were the Slavers who were deliberately not killing colonists, as they were planning to turn the colonists into more slaves.  
It only took fifteen minutes, and by then the slavers had complete control of the colony, and had herded the survivors into the main gathering hall. The Slavers had thought about keeping the colony, but since the colonists had hidden the radiation filter and the medicines deep in the mines, and turned up the ventilation, the radiation was starting to rise, and the Slavers knew they had around ten hours before they had to leave.  
Even better, from the Slavers' perspective, was that there were no other ships within twelve hours of the colony, so they could take their time, in picking the choice specimens from the colony, and sending them up to be stored in the freighter holds. And so the grisly spectacle began, with two Slavers going through the crowd, selecting one person at a time for inspection. Overall muscle tone, health, and reactions were all measured, and each person was either selected or rejected for transport and storage. For those that didn't quite measure up, there was another option for them. After all, the Slavers did prefer their meat fresh.  
The ones selected for food would be sent up first, so the cooks could get ready preparing a feast for when the three ships were to leave. For the others, the cargo bays were cleared, and basic food stock was selected, so the slaves could be kept alive on the way back. There were a few slaves currently on board, as someone had to teach the others how to be properly respectful of their new Masters.  
  
Ensign Felson sat in the cockpit breathing heavily. She had watched the dance of the shuttles bringing the slavers to the planet, and first few shuttles returning. She had wanted to do something immediately, but now was her chance, and she selected one of the freighters. According to the reports, the freighters were far more vulnerable to ion blasts, so her shots would be more effective if she targeted a freighter. Most importantly though, was that the freighters could carry up to 200 people in their rear modules, while a Pirate class vessel could only carry 100. If she could cripple a freighter, that would be 200 more people that would be saved. Lining her ion gun on the warp nacelles, she began firing.  
  
The Warlord of this group bared his teeth in approval as the first shuttles began coming in, loaded with slaves and loot. The nuclear explosions in orbit had told him that these creatures wanted to fight, unlike the weak and pathetic others that lived in this region. He had recognized that the nuclear explosions would kill his ships, and battle against stupid bombs was not an honorable way to die.  
He had sent his shuttles out to destroy the bombs, and after the warriors had realized that getting too close to the bombs was dangerous they began destroying them from a distance. All but two did that though, as those two warriors had died fighting, with a weapon in their hands and a yell in their throats.  
When the last bombs had been cleared away, he had been wanting to join them in processing the loot, but had decided instead to take his choice from the slaves that came up, as his quarters were a little cluttered from all the other loot he had seized, and he needed a few beings to wait upon him. A warrior fought, instead of cleaning the floors. He had much menial work that needed to be done, and he wanted a few choice slaves for that purpose.  
As he was imagining his quarters, with his trophies cleaned, and the walls properly painted, a buzzer sounded, destroying his wonderful dreaming.  
"What is that t'falk noise for?"  
"War Leader, the Glutton reports they are being attacked by a shuttle with an electron gun."  
"Tell those frelk'ha to send their shuttles to deal with it. Remind them that a warrior does not call for help like a mih'vo, they deal with it themselves."  
"Yes War Leader."  
Sighing, the War Leader flopped back in his chair. He had volunteered for this assignment because he wanted to bring honor and glory to himself, allowing him to become the new Warlord, instead of the simpering worm that currently sat in the chair. Ever since a few freighters and one Hawk class vessel had stopped talking, the Warlord had been agitated. Simply because another War Leader and a few t'falk LootMasters had stopped talking was no reason to get worried. They had been in this region for many years, and there had been nothing that could have opposed them. The Lootmasters had probably taken their loot and moved outwards, seeking new ground to prey upon.  
But the Warlord had undoubtedly sensed his mood, which was the best reason why he had been assigned these Lootmasters to accompany him. They seemed to either question his every order, or ask him for orders for everything. It seemed as though these two had been chosen to cause him as much trouble as possible, and dishonor himself in the eyes of those on his ship. But his orders were being obeyed, and Lootmaster Kor'mok was slowly turning his ship to reduce the effect of the electron guns, and his four shuttles were being launched from the planet to deal with the Tonk fly bothering them.  
  
Ensign Felson watched four shuttles change course for her. All of these shuttles were of the alien design, while the standard Federation designs seemed to be still loading 'cargo' from the planet. She fired a few shots at the incoming shuttles now, more in an attempt to scare them off than actually hit them, and was rewarded as they began dodging and weaving slightly, but still coming in. She looked at the freighter that she had fired at earlier, and gasped. It was heading towards her as well! Apparently the commander of the freighter wanted to deal with the person who had been firing at him earlier.  
Recording their positions and courses, she began edging back towards the surface of the planet's moon, trying to avoid being shot. She needed those shuttles a little closer for the plan to work. Firing a couple more blasts to keep their attention on her, she ducked back around the moon, hoping the plan would work.  
  
The lead shuttle of the four chasing seemed to have larger patterns on it, and the image of a leader was reinforced by the conversation that took place between the four shuttles. "This is Talon Leader. The kill is mine. I will pursue, cripple and kill it. The rest of you will follow but only to record my battle. This is to be a fight between me and whatever filth is in the other shuttle, and all of you are to stay out."  
There were various mumbled agreements, and a few veiled complaints about the leader grabbing all the glory, but the other four agreed, and followed the leader around the moon, at a respectful distance. Suddenly, over the channels they heard, "What is, no!" At the same time, the Talon Leader's shuttle was seen to flare brilliantly, and then parts of it seemed to explode.  
Suddenly, they saw what their leader had seen as well, and they knew they were dead. But they were warriors, and merely because one would die is never a reason to retreat. Pushing their drives to the limits, they charged in at the four shuttles waiting for them, and the massive ship behind them.  
  
Captain Morgan smiled as the trap was sprung. By bringing his ship behind the planet's moon, he had been able to mask most of his warp signature, and coming out of warp close to the moon had managed to save an hour off their travel time. On the way in, he had set up his trap, and he smiled as the laser turrets crippled the third of the four shuttles. The last one seemed to be determined to ram the Excellon, but it was directly in front, and the turret lasers were swinging around, trying to damage or destroy the shuttle before it rammed. The Excellon's shields were up, but having a shuttle ram them before a battle could easily turn the tide.  
  
The last pilot cried out as the last of his fellow pilots were shot down by the shuttles and the large vessel. These beings had used a foul trap and attacked like cowards, and his fellow warriors would be denied entry into the warrior's hall. But he still could avenge their souls, and he pushed every bit of power to his engines, and aimed himself at the larger vessel. If he could damage it enough with his attack, the other warriors behind him would be able to defeat this ship of cowards. Letting out a roar, he bored in.  
  
Captain Morgan saw the vessel accelerate, and smiled as he saw its path. Turning to the main weapons officer, he said, "Fire main lasers."  
  
The last pilot wondered as the large vessel turned towards him, and he snarled as he imagined the beings onboard trying to ram him as well. But his vision was suddenly wiped out in a bright light, and he barely had time to realize his mistake as the spinal lasers from the Excellon all but vaporized his ship.  
  
The shuttles came out again from behind the moon, but they did not open fire this time. They were plotting targets for the Excellon, and they carefully recorded the positions of the vessels. Behind them, the vertical launch cells of the Excellon were opening, and missiles began blasting out. But instead of heading in at top speed, the missiles were overloading their engines initially to get a high velocity, then drift in unpowered. When the Excellon arrived and began to open fire, all they would need was a radio signal to detonate.  
Waiting a couple minutes, the Excellon came out from behind the moon, and began locking onto the Pirate class vessel. Since they were still out of laser range, he did not go active with the sensors, but the passive sensors were busy gathering data. Unfortunately, they could not tell what type of Pirate it was or how many people were in the cargo holds, but they could see shuttles lifting off from the planet. Realizing what was in the shuttles, Captain Morgan called up a tactical plot showing their locations, vectors, and the shut down missiles.  
Seeing two of the missiles getting close to a freighter, he ordered them to detonate at the closest point of approach. Twin nuclear detonations should get their attention quite well. In addition, he ordered a fire solution on the Pirate, with four nuclear missiles targeting it, with each missile at full power.  
  
The War Leader relaxed as the shuttles began carrying up the first courses for his feast tonight, then gasped in shock as the ship's sensors picked up the new contact. The vessel was bigger than his personal ship, and he could see the sensors detecting what would obviously fire control emissions coming from it. He now knew why the other ships had disappeared, but he bared his fangs, as he would prevent that ship from getting him.  
Yelling out commands, he ordered the Lootmasters to have their freighters join up with him, as it was honorable to attack a larger opponent with multiple warriors. The glory would be shared, but this battle would be told often over victory feasts, and there would be more than enough glory for everyone there.  
Suddenly two nuclear explosions occurred near one of his freighters, and the Lootmaster reported that his vessel was gushing atmosphere, and his ship was effectively out of the fight until they could get into suits. Seeing the loss of firepower from that vessel, the War Leader totaled his current assets; one warship with three electron guns, but one of them was missing its storage cell, and one freighter with a total of ten small electron guns. If he could use his ship to hammer from long range, he could distract the large ship enough for the Lootmaster to get his ship into close range, and cut loose with all ten electron guns. Yelling his orders to the Lootmaster, he ordered top speed, and to charge all weapons and storage cells.  
Several other nuclear explosions occurred, but they were too far away to do significant damage, although a couple warm spots on his ship's wings were reported. The Lootmaster reported only one significant explosion, and that had merely damaged the cargo pod of his ship. Both ships were still in good fighting condition, and they accelerated to meet their foe.  
  
Captain Morgan watched as the remaining missiles detonated, and frowned. They had detonated too far from their targets to do any effective damage, and the two remaining ships were heading in. Wanting to see what sort of armament the freighter was equipped with, he had it brought up on the main viewer. Seeing the two sets of ion guns, he knew that he better not let the Excellon get too close. But that ship was equipped with a commercial engine, so it could go long distances, but the Excellon could easily outrun it. Of course the Pirate would make things interesting, and he watched as the first ion blasts began coming out from it.  
  
The War Leader watched as the unknown vessel slowed down, and snarled at it. It was obvious the cowards were afraid to face him, even with their larger vessel, and he yelled the command to open fire. The wing guns volleyed their shots, and the bow gun fired it single shot, and the electron pulses raced out. A total of eleven pulses were fired, and he watched to see how accurate his gunners were.  
  
Captain Morgan watched the pulses hit the shields, and spared a glance at the energy mesh readings. Of the eleven pulses fired, eight had hit the forward shields, but the shields were still holding at forty percent strength. Without the leaky modification, the shields would have been down to thirty three percent strength. The energy that got through though, hit the mesh and was conducted to special batteries and power flow systems. Because of that little bit of power, the energy mesh itself was able to provide enough power to restore one percent of the shields. Of course, that was a very low efficiency, but the scientists had assured him they were working on an improved version.  
Still though, the Pirate was closing fast, and he watched as it approached close enough to use the spinal lasers effectively.  
  
The War Leader watched as some sort of bubble around the target ship absorbed the electron pulses. Some of the power had managed to hit the ship, so that was good, but that bubble had apparently managed to stop his entire first strike. That tactic was what they had designed these hawk class vessels for, and this vessel seemed designed to counter. But that bubble was produced by onboard equipment, so obviously some of the room inside had been taken up by the equipment. He ordered a change to one side, and the ship banked hard as the helmswarrior instinctively maneuvered the ship to the side.  
  
Captain Morgan watched in delight as the alien ship turned hard and exposed its large surface area. Whoever was over there had forgotten that in a space fight, you don't need to bank a ship in order to turn. Deciding to take advantage of it, Captain Morgan ordered, "Fire main lasers."  
Again, in space, there is no way to see a laser in operation. The viewscreen provided a simulation of the lasers streaking out, but there was no simulation done on the slaver ship. The lasers had been trained on its nose, and the target's very movement allowed the beams to cut through the hull in a line extending from the nose to the tail. Atmosphere gushed from the seam, and the engines had a small explosion occur as they were badly damaged by the laser.  
  
The War Leader gasped in shock as the reports came in. This ship had some sort of weapon that was gutting his ship from one end to the other. All of his defenses and tactics relied on absorbing an opponent's electron bolts with onboard systems, but this type of weapon required a different set of defenses and tactics. In fact, the best sort of defense against this sort of weapon was armor, designed to reflect and refract the photons hitting his ship. Other options for the armor would be something with a high thermal threshold, so it took a lot of time and energy to melt each unit of armor. That time could be put to use maneuvering his ship, to prevent the beam from resting on one part of the armor for too long.  
But he had only a few moments for that series of thoughts as the air was escaping from the bridge quickly, and in a few minutes everyone there was unconscious from the vacuum. After that, it was only a matter of time for the moisture in their bodies to boil off.  
  
Captain Morgan watched as all activity on the enemy Pirate stopped suddenly, and smiled. Even though the main lasers were hard to aim properly, whenever they hit a target, they always did a wonderful job. Getting in closer, he ordered the armed shuttles to disable all electrical activity as before, to make sure the Pirate didn't turn around and attack them, as they still had two other freighters to deal with.  
The closer freighter had apparently seen what had happened to the Pirate, and was trying to get in close to use its guns before it too was destroyed. But proceeding in straight towards the Excellon was a mistake. Although it was out of the fire arc of the main lasers, the other lasers were able to track it well, and it only took a couple more seconds before both electron gun sets were cut off from the ship. The shuttles again crippled it, before following the Excellon towards the planet. Here though, the remaining six shuttles and the freighter waited, determined to die before retreating an inch. The shuttles were ready for combat, and the freighter had managed to patch the biggest holes in its skin.  
Deciding to not bother with closing against the shuttles, Captain Morgan asked for a close-up of the freighter. Seeing the larger electron gun on top, he told the lasers to shear that gun off first. They had managed to recharge their forward shields, so the two shots fired by the large ion gun only did fifteen percent damage before the turret lasers were able to cut it and the smaller cluster of guns off the freighter.  
With its weapons removed, the freighter was unable to influence the fight that followed. For the shuttles were still active, and they came in at their top speeds. Three alien shuttles and three Federation shuttles sped in toward the Excellon, firing their electron guns the whole way in. The alien shuttles became the highest priority for the laser turrets, as they carried two electron guns each while the Federation shuttles only carried one each.  
The battle around the Excellon turned into a wild melee, as the six attacking shuttles swarmed around, trying to get a shot into a weakly defended part, while the four defending shuttles tried to pick off an attacker here and there. During the whole time, the Excellon's laser turrets were firing, in an attempt to take out an enemy shuttle by chance or skill.  
Eventually, all six enemy shuttles were taken down, and Captain Morgan looked at his security chief. "Begin landing your troops. I want that colony secured, and if possible, I want prisoners. Ved can translate their speech, and we have a brig to store them in until we rendezvous with the Amemnon."  
Lt Commander Vergan turned on her heels, and began barking orders for her security details. They were to go down and secure the colony, in case any of the slavers were still alive down there. Once that was done, or the colony's security force had taken over, they would be returning to the Excellon to take care of the ships and shuttles still in orbit.  
The four armed shuttles from the Excellon dropped through the atmosphere, and began depositing their troops near the main colony buildings. The soldiers steadily moved forwards, checking out each room, and clearing it. The first sign of resistance came when they began approaching the largest building. Two shots were fired towards them, and they ducked low, staying behind cover. Knowing they had to get inside that building, as none of the colonists had been found yet, Vergan began ordering his troopers to advance in a leapfrog fashion, with one team covering another while they alternated advancing.  
Several more shots were fired, and the Federation security troops returned fire, with the shuttles above firing electron pulses to try and keep the slavers' heads down. Finally, the troopers were at the doors to the main building, with a couple teams watching the windows in case any of the slavers tried to jump out and circle around.  
Using a small override control, the doors were opened, and several concussion grenades were thrown in, to keep anyone inside from wanting to get close. Tossing glow-globs next, the troopers began moving into the building, trying to find all the intruders. With their night vision systems, they could easily see with and without the glow-globs, but they had tossed them in to make sure that any Federation personnel wouldn't attack them out of panic. They began moving from one room to the next, and the first attack came swiftly.  
Two troopers were checking out a room, examining the corners, when suddenly two of the slavers dropped from the ceiling lights, and began grappling with them. The power suits the troopers were wearing allowed them some strength enhancement, but the slavers had reflexes and flexibility on their side. The two troopers attacked were slow and clumsy against the slavers, and they knew they had to do something to change the balance.  
Fortunately, the next two troopers saw what was going on, and one of them tossed in another concussion grenade, causing the two slavers to fall to the floor from the blast. The troopers had been protected by their armor, and they quickly went to work securing the prisoners. Remembering how the slavers had been very strong, the usual restraints were tripled up to make sure neither of the slavers escaped.  
Armed with the knowledge that the slavers might wait in the ceilings, the process of clearing the rooms took a little longer, and after several dozen more slavers were captured or killed, they finally arrived at the main gathering hall, and were shocked. Every one of the colonists still alive had been herded in here, and from the way they were huddled around each other, what the slavers had done wasn't pretty. A few of the colonists that had been selected for food had bites taken out of their muscles, and the medical personnel had made up crude bandages for them trying to stop the blood loss with pressure pads and tourniquets. Other colonists had been selected for strength, and their limbs showed stress from where the slavers had tried to pull them apart to see how tough they were. The result was that all of them had limbs dislocated, but the doctors and medics had been able to pop them back in properly. The final group though, had been selected for the slavers' 'entertainment'. The men selected had several deep cuts in their bodies from where the slavers had fought them and won, while the women were huddled together, afraid of anyone touching them because of what had happened to them. The troopers who saw the colonists first were horrified at the thought of what had gone on in the room, but then the feeling became one of rage.  
While the troopers were expressing their rage in different ways, the medical personnel were escorted to the hospitals, in case of any more slavers, and they brought the injured patients with them. It took several hours for all the wounds to be closed up, and the patients stabilized, but the doctors and nurses worked wonders, even as tired and injured as some of them were. Even the nurses who had been 'tried out' by the slavers managed to shake off their cobwebs and do their jobs. But their actions were more robot-like than anything else, as their eyes still showed the horror of what had happened.  
The security detail for the colony was finally assembled, and they spread out through the tunnels, checking them for any remaining slavers, and picking up the radiation filters and medicines as well. When the colony was finally pronounced secure, Lt Commander Vergan gave a report to Captain Morgan.  
Everyone else on the bridge had become accustomed to Captain Morgan being a rock of solidity, but that day they saw the magma that lay beneath. He said nothing, but his eyes burned with inner fire, and everyone there grew afraid. It wasn't because they were worried about him lashing out at them, but because of the rage that was all too evident. They had heard through the grapevine how the Federation planned to make peace with these slavers, and the thought of making peace with these slavers was too horrible to contemplate. After all, if they did try to make peace, the traditional Federation way of allowing for a race's unique characteristics meant that certain colonies would be selected to be the prey of these slavers.  
But the rage passed, and Captain Morgan was again in control of himself. Looking around, he saw people working at their posts, and smiled, because their calm actions reminded him that he would have to fight the slavers, but not become one of them. He also remembered the other ships in the area that had been crippled, and the ground troops were recalled to take control of them.  
  
The clean up on board the ships went well, although there were a few trouble spots. Several times a trooper would go almost berserk when fighting one of the slavers, and the others would have to restrain him or her from killing the slaver with bare hands. Whenever they found a group of ex-slaves, they would put them in a safe location (usually the shuttle they came in), and keep on going. Several times, shuttles would detach from the ship being taken over, and would deposit the liberated slaves on the colony.  
There were even a few 'entertainment' slaves kept, including a few that looked similar to the slavers. When a translator on board the ship explained that these were the females of the slavers, and that the slavers considered their females and slaves in the same category, the troopers were shocked again. Several of them had grown up with the concept of all beings being created with equal rights, and the thought of someone treating member of their own species, let alone members of another species, as slaves was making them almost numb to further shocks.  
At the end, Captain Morgan totaled up what had been recovered. One Pirate Beta vessel, with open stomach; two freighters, with a total of fifteen small electron guns and one large electron gun, six alien shuttles, and three Federation armed shuttles. Nodding to himself, he thought, 'Not a bad day's work'. But the thought of what the colonists had gone through went through his mind repeatedly. Even more important was what one of the colonists had said about the nuclear mines that had been in orbit, and the few hours they had bought for the colonists to get underground and for the Excellon to arrive.  
He knew that the mines were highly illegal, but they had worked. Unfortunately, the radiation from the mines in orbit would show up for a long time, and the next ship that came by would be able to spot what had happened easily. But fusion warheads were much cleaner, and the Excellon still had 110 missiles in its vertical launch bays. Thinking slowly, knowing he was violating Federation law about arming colonists, Captain Morgan ordered, "Deploy ten warheads from our vertical launch missiles. They will be transferred to the colony to function as mines in orbit."  
Several people on board the bridge gasped at the order. They knew that Federation law prohibited colonies from owning weapons, and that Captain Morgan's orders was completely illegal. The weapons officer was the first to speak up.  
"Captain, we can't do that. It goes against Federation law to let colonies have weapons of any kind. If we let the colony have weapons, then we're no better than the pirates we're hunting."  
"Lieutenant I know that. I also know that those mines they had placed in orbit were the only thing that slowed down these slavers enough for us to arrive in time. I don't like arming colonists any more than you do, but if we are to get anywhere in time, the colonies need something to slow down or stop these pirates. Unless we can get orbital laser platforms in, using our missile warheads as clean mines will work in the meantime."  
"What if the colony tries to rebel after the pirates are driven away? They will have top of the line weaponry to hold off ships with."  
"That makes it even more important that we provide the weapons. Since they are ours, we can record their control codes, and if the colony later decides to rebel, we can always drop in, disarm or detonate the mines remotely, and put the Federation back in control. The other option is watching the colonists put more of those fission warheads in orbit, with the radiation they cause, and not have them under our control."  
Lieutenant Ilhar quieted down at that commented, and but off his retort as he thought about the obvious problem, and the two solutions. No matter what they did, the colonists would soon have more mines put in orbit, and that was a serious problem. They could either provide the mines themselves, or the colonists would build them. If they provided the mines from their missile warheads, the explosions would be clean fusion explosions, and they could always disable them later with the control codes. But if the colonists built their own warheads, they would be dirty fission bombs, and there would be no way to disarm them later.  
The real problem in his mind was that if they provided the warheads to act as mines, they would be violating Federation law. He knew that he had been posted out here because he wasn't properly Federation, but he had always tried to obey Federation law wherever he went. Now he was faced with a situation he had never expected, and his fundamental beliefs were being assailed by the fact that mines were needed to keep the slavers away. He had a simple choice, but it was not an easy one. Either violate his deepest-held beliefs, or watch the pirates slaughter Federation citizens.  
The internal struggle barely showed on the outside, and after a few seconds, he nodded his head. He would get the warheads removed and reconfigured as mines. Captain Morgan could only see a hint of the struggle that occurred on the inside, and he knew that he would have the Chief Engineer talk to him later, to help him accept his decision.  
Already the salvage crews were reporting back with their news, and it was fairly good. One of the freighters was damaged, but the other contained enough parts to get it flying again. They could attach the pods to the freighter that could still move, and store the other nose and the Pirate in its cargo holds to be returned to starbase 121.  
The missiles were jettisoned and their warheads removed, and the Ritzak colony members began the process of hooking the warheads up to their mine control system. The power plant was being repaired in the meantime, and soon they could report back to starbase 121 what had happened, and what the slavers had done to the people here. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that the people back there would be horrified by what had nearly happened, and would try to get help from the rest of the Federation.  
The best art was that the two freighters that had been recovered were among the earliest ones captured. The Gervon had disappeared at the earliest outbreak, and the Halmat was a little more recent. Some people had looked funny when they realized they had recaptured five freighters, but Captain Morgan reminded them that they had recovered half of the recent disappearances earlier, not half of the total amount. Now with four freighters recovered out of eight originally stolen, and nineteen out of twenty shuttles accounted for, they were definitely making an impact on the local slaver operations.  
With the Gervon following them, Captain Morgan led the ship back to where they had left the Amemnon, intending to escort both freighters back to the starbase, and then continue the rounds. After all, if he sent the Gervon back by itself, the freighter might get recaptured, and that would tip off the slavers as to how much firepower was being wielded to stop their activities. As long as the Excellon was able to remain an unknown force, and able to surprise the slavers, they would have a chance.  
But when they returned to where they had left the Amemnon, everyone grew quiet. For the Amemnon was gone. 


	5. Appreciation

Thank you NixNivis. Because of your willingness to review my story, I have uploaded chapter 4. 


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